Photography Bex Aston
Fashion Toni Caroline at Eighteen Management
Words by Jiré Saffron
Grooming Ross McLaughlan at Eighteen Management using Oribe
Photography Assistant Nina Close
Fashion Assistant Rhea Nathan
Retouching Nina at Post
Models Shin Dongyeon at Elite Models, Milo Kester at The Squad, Montell at Select Models and Oscar Mathias and Gabriel Pitta at Next Models
Tangled trees and wild vines welcome the 3pm peace. Abandoned parks and hushed streets take a breath before ringing bells. Metalic ripples fill the sweet air moments before the silence shatters. Blonde hair and blue tips. Button downs paired with new sneaks. Loose ties hang from the collars of kids as they teach each other what a man could be.
Running through empty streets, overwhelmed by dreams - each week gets harsher. But, they’ll always look forward to summer, they’ll always have each other. Each season, a new reason to look forward.
Launched into a world of fresh minds lost in flight, Ben Axston follows these young hearts to let her lens paint the picture. Harmony reaches balance. Days wrapped in silence. To be both part and whole, to not reach home until you go outside. Each moment in the grass not taken for granted. The pulse of the Earth against wet fingertips. Body and mind becoming one in real time.
Styled by Toni Caroline, the boys move fluidly between present and past. Classic templates are made modern with loosely tailored cuts and youthful colour combinations. The young men are dressed to move through the seasons without having to wait for the seasons to come to them. As an extension of their skin, they live in these clothes throughout the hours of night and day.
Meeting at the campus quad after hours, discussions arise around the lessons learnt in the field without a textbook in sight. Reaching towards the top of the world and travelling first-class in a silver supermarket carriage, the boys lounge to their hearts content. The first stages of discovery begin when boys become men.