Caribbean Blogger Spotlight: Kingston Style

All photos by Marlon “BiggyBigz” Reid

Street Style photographers capture the everyday runway of stylish people. I was super excited to stumble on Kingston Style a few years ago and to-date it’s still my “go-to” to see the latest trends in Jamaica. Covering events, dances and everyday fashion experiences; photographer Marlon Reid aka BiggyBigz captures the essence of Jamaica’s street style. Marlon is an accomplished photographer (Jamaica Observer, LargeUp) who used Kingston Style to add to his portfolio covering a style variety “from the hardcore to the high end – fashion from the streets of Kingston, Jamaica.” He talks about how he got his start, his favorite photography blogs and gives advice to the newcomers.

Tell me about how you became interested in photography?

(Lol) Hah… that’s a funny one! I became interested in photography because of girls to me honest. Girls that I saw my friend Peter Dean Rickards had photographed before. Then I suddenly approached him one day out in Three Miles, Bull Bay where we went to look for our mutual friend who is heavily into Jamaican art, Melinda Brown. While there having a few beers together I said to him, “Hey I like this work, you know, that you do,” and he said to me, “Yeah, but why though?” I told him, I said, “I like the girls you photograph.” By this time he started joking with me and then he said, “Yea mon I will show you the ropes because I am planning on going in to videography soon.”

What are your must have tools for shooting?

I would say my tri-pod, extra batteries and good natural light.

Tell me about how you started Kingston Style?

As an apprentice coming up in the photography world, I started wanting to showcase my work somewhere so people could get to see some of my talent. While attending various dances such as Passa Passa, Uptown Mondays, Weddy Weddy and so on, I started thinking of doing a dancehall website at the time. A few friends started saying too many of those websites are around. By conversing we came up with the idea of a street style blog. Kingston Style was started in 2010 with the attempt of doing something different from the regular dancehall websites.

Has Kingston Style enhanced business opportunities for you? Tell me about that.

Yes it has, Kingston Style has the attention now of a few corporate businesses and designers. We are gaining momentum so we can move forward with new projects.

Who are some of your favorite photographers and street style bloggers?

Well my favorite photographers would have to be Peter Dean Rickards, Bill Cunningham and Jeremy Relph. My favorite street style blogs are Mister Mort, Style Clicker, Style Chic and Street Peeper.

What advice would you give to new/upcoming photographers?

To be themselves and photograph stuff as how they see it. Keep it real.

Most people see the final product of your work, but tell me about the less glamorous side of you job that people may not know about?

The less glamorous side of work would be shooting content on the streets at night and go home to spend long hours choosing and editing images to fit the level of our publication.

How would you describe your photography style?

Edgy and real.

Who are you vibin’ to (musically) right now?

Mavado is my artist but I can tell you that Chronixx is the artist that I am vibing with at this moment.

What can we expect from you and Kingston Style in the future?

More editorial work. We just rebranded the site to include style news and are planning to expand awareness internationally about Jamaican style with an online store.