Photographer Johnny Dufort on getting outside his comfort zone

“The first time I remember getting excited about photography was seeing hand prints made by a friend of my parents,” London-based photographer Johnny Dufort remembers. “When I was a child I’d never seen a real photograph bigger than mini lab prints.”

These days, the photographer’s bleached-out, digitally-enhanced images secure commissions from the likes of Balenciaga, Calvin Klein, Kenzo, Stella McCartney, Gucci, Tom Ford and Louis Vuitton, Vogue, W, AnOther Magazine, Document Journal, Re-Edition, Dazed, Pop and Arena Homme+.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Johnny has been travelling a lot for work recently. “I’ve been working a lot on projects on location and had my first trip to Iceland. It’s a really interesting and unique island culture.” It’s trips abroad which engage and inspire the photographer most. “At the moment I’m really interested in taking photographs in places I’ve never been,” he says. “To be commissioned to go somewhere I had never experienced really excites me. I think I make the best work when things are slightly out of my comfort zone.”

Another passage beyond his comfort zone can be found in Johnny’s collaborators. “For my work, it’s so important to work with a stylist with a strong aesthetic,” he says. “It takes my photography in a different direction when I work with different people.” Among those stylists is Lotta Volkova, Vetements’ cult stylist who Johnny lensed in Balenciaga for Vogue. Discomfort never looked so good.