BOOK CLUB #34: Book of Igor by William Baker

#MustHave – For this project photographer William Baker has documented model Igor Stepanov and he spent 18 months photographing him in the studio, at Igor’s home, with friends and family and in varies cities in the US. He is also launching a clothing range to complement the book. William says his ‘Kylie thing’ was about who he would have liked to have been; with Igor, it was about who he would have liked to have been with. William has been taking photographs for the last decade and felt wanted to do something he felt was different to his work in the pop landscape. William explains, like many young people with dreams on social media, Igor wants to be famous, which in many ways, is the story of the book. He found him, this straight young man on instagram, posing in his underpants, not caring where the attention came from, so long as it came. Will has called this his Death in Venice moment and his mid-life crisis and it became a relationship of sorts, this girlfriend-free heterosexual and flamboyant gay man, with Will spending all his time with him and taking him to the US, land of Igor’s dreams.

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Igor Stepanov. William Baker. Muse. Photographer. 21. 40. Boy. Man. Straight. Gay. Both looking. I first saw him on Instagram: A Latvian fantasy in threadbare Calvins. In yer face Selling desire. I ‘liked’ his posts. We met in a photo studio. Pixels made flesh. This is Igor. This is his book.

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Follow William and Igor in Instagram @_williambaker @iigorstepanov

Get the book here: shop.william-baker.com/product/book-of-igor

Book Of Igor : William Baker x Igor Stepanov
Photographer: William Baker // Author: William Baker
Publisher: Glitterbomb Ltd
Full colour print on Munken Polar Rough Uncoated 150 gsm
Binding: Perfect bound softcover
Size – 232 Pages, 17 x 24 cm
Edition of 500 copies