The relationship between artist and muse has long shaped our cultural landscape. Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal, Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, Alexander McQueen and Isabella Blow. The Book of Igor is rooted in this principle of rich creative inspiration, but subverts it. William Baker found Igor via Instagram. This chance online encounter set the tone for the fervent relationship that followed. Only 20 years old, Igor was born engrossed in the online world, and William attempts to deconstruct this fascination with self-documentation through his lens, while simultaneously capturing the optimistic essence of youth. Beyond this, the book also examines the interesting dynamic of a younger straight man and an older gay man. The result is a tender, charming look at untraditional relationship, one that touches on but is never defined by sexuality and unfamiliarity. We spoke to William about his vision for the book and what he learned along the way.
What was it about Igor that caught your eye?
When I first started using Instagram, a friend said I should look at this boy Igor. I checked out his profile and was intrigued by how provocative and aware the images that he posted of himself were. They were knowing but natural. What really struck me was how a straight kid offered these shots of himself to the world — playing computer games, half naked in baggy boxers or briefs — yet they were so homoerotic. I guess he embodied and encapsulated an aesthetic of what I like to look at and that I love in others’s photography. From that raw, urgent, ‘hetero’ street sexuality of Larry Clark; to a more fantasized traditional male aesthetic like Bruce Weber; to the more dangerous and dark homo-centric work of Slava Mogutin. Igor’s shots of himself were totally shameless and honest, they weren’t glamorous at all.
What motivated you to create an entire book dedicated to Igor?
He just really inspired me. It was that simple. And it was very deliberate really, it was “Let’s get to know each other and document it in a book.” It was obviously about Igor, but it was also about what he represented: youth, beauty, innocence, unfulfilled dreams, unrequited love… I joked that he was my walking mid-life crisis, but I was really drawn to this boy who was so full of juxtapositions: innocent yet totally aware of himself and his physicality, super cocky and over confident, but with this real gentleness and a sense of sadness. This kid who wants to be a ‘bad man’ as he would say, but instead I just saw this lost boy. It made me want to shoot him more, the better we got to know each other.
How did your relationship develop over the 18 months?
It was pretty intense from the start, but as we got to know each other the relationship went through all these different phases that became part of the story the book was telling. So it felt sometimes like we were boyfriends, even though he is straight, sometimes like we were best friends. I looked after him, but he also looked after me, All the labels and roles that applied one minute and reversed the next.
How comfortable did you feel in one another’s presence, particularly during the more intimate shoots?
Igor and I are from totally different realities really. Sometimes it felt like we were from different planets, but there was never any ‘discomfort.’ He was a totally willing muse. We both felt at ease with each other, otherwise it would have been very difficult for the book to work. Igor is pretty self confident anyway and not exactly shy. At least not on the surface. He loves modeling and being photographed. But I deliberately didn’t include any nude stuff really because I didn’t want it to be about an obvious, homosexual lust.
Are there any images you feel a particular connection to?
I feel connected to them all, which is why the edit was so hard and took so long. Each image was loaded with memories and showed something about him that I wanted to include. But I really didn’t want it to be on the wrong side of sentimental. I really wanted to try and capture a feeling, whether his or mine, and a story. But I really love the selfies that Igor took as they remind me of getting to know someone and how mental that feels. How someone’s name on your phone makes you feel crazy, and crazy when you don’t see it. I really want people to see that in the book. I feel really honored and lucky to have met him and am so proud of the book. I really wanted to do something very personal.
Was there a different atmosphere and mood when shooting in Fire Island to Ilford?
He always felt like a caged animal in Ilford, trapped, suppressed. He had this dream and drive that he really wanted to be famous and go to the States and ‘make it’. I was like, ‘what the fuck does that mean?’ But coming from a place of nothing materially, L.A. and NYC are, I guess, a magnet for those dreams of success. The American Dream! I never really had it, I just wanted to be a pop star and wear makeup. But everything he aspires to, listens to, watches, is American, so it’s not surprising that is where he wanted to get to. But I love the pictures of the park in Illford near Igor’s house, where his little sister feeds the ducks. The light that day was so perfect to capture that desolation of suburbia and that feeling of being trapped there.
The book feels somewhat quite like a commentary on social media and our running commentary of our lives, particularly on the back pages devoted to Igor’s selfies. Was this part of your vision?
I really wanted to get across how I see him and how he sees himself, as well as allow people to see how he wanted me to see him. The back pages are all images that he sent to me, contrasted with the shots of him that I took which fill up the rest of the book. I think his pics of himself show himself as much more an object than the ones I took of him.
This competitiveness on social media to be sexier, more overt, show more skin at a younger and younger age is obviously dangerous, but what I find really dangerous about it is that there is this loss of real intimacy, real communication, of souls touching and affecting each other that comes with any deep expression of emotion and self knowledge.
What do you hope people to take away from Book of Igor?
I hope that they see it as the journey of a relationship. I also hope they see it as a document of someone growing up and that you never stop growing up. That the time you spend on the cusp of adulthood is such a special time. I want people to see the melancholy of that time in life, late teens, early twenties, when you have a head full of dreams and ambition and a future of infinite possibilities. That is what I wanted, to feel that hope again.
The Book of Igor is available to buy here.