Hemingway photo fest.

Ernest Hemingway is one of those characters in life that you either love or hate. For some its difficult to get beyond the hulking braggart for others there's an endless fascination with the charismatic author. I fall in the later camp. 

I was first drawn to Hemingway because of his great love of the outdoors and at that time I was much inspired by vintage American sportswear, especially clothes for the field and marsh. After reading his short story, 'Big Two-Hearted River', I found myself completely entranced and transfixed and I embarked on a wonderful literary journey that lasted many years reading everything I could possibly find about Ernest. On a trip to Tokyo in the early 1990's I stumbled onto a photographic exhibition held in one of Shibuya's premier department stores, the featured photographer was the famous Robert Capa and in his collection were several photographs of the big man himself, Papa Hemingway. Capa had accompanied Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn to Idaho to capture the Hemingway's at play. They were also in the company of Gary Cooper and his wife Veronica as well as I think Slim Keith. This exhibition led me to follow up on the rest of the photos from this session and the best spread I could find of this event was featured in the Italian magazine, Photo Hi Fi Italiana, October 1980. This prize discovery has kept me enthused for years and to this day I still get excited looking at the pics. Come winter I tend to revisit these photos looking for inspiration in Hemingway's unique style of dress. For certain he was no fashion peacock but he imbued his clothes with a masculine ruggedness that was every bit as individual as his writing style. So as the temperature cools my wardrobe is laid open and out comes the duck cloth and plaid, the tweed and corduroy, boots, vests and my old Indian blanket.

Featured below is just a small collection of photos of interest, many more can be perused on the net, you folks know the drill, go to it!

Semper Papa.