Faust

I just googled “Faust” to see if I could find any witty quotes or phrases to start this story.

“Faust (/faʊst/; German: [faʊ̯st]) is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.

Hey Siri, what is an “erudite”?

Erudite. adjective

: having or showing knowledge that is gained by studying: possessing or displaying erudition
an erudite scholar

eruditely adverb

What a very coincidental coincidence. Faust is an erudite. Eugene Rabkin is “Faust” (on StyleZeitgeist, of course).

And I was “hommedeguerre” … and to Faust, I was a Philistine. A consumer buying into a culture, in which Eugene held encyclopedic knowledge. We did not get along…on the internet.

I remember the first time I saw Faust in “real life”. It was 20 February 2011, and I had only lived in New York City for 51 days. Walking down East 7th street, I saw two men sat outside of Tokio7, both resembled the internet avatars I knew from oft shared WAYWT posts. One was Alex Kasavin, smoking a cigar in a Rick Owens black leather jacket with an asymmetrical snap collar, Rick drop-crotch pants, Rick boots, and a black beanie which was probably also Rick. The other man was Eugene. I photographed Alex. I did not photograph Eugene. I remember that that made me feel powerful in the moment.

That was that.

I saw Eugene again many times over the coming years and everything was kosher. Eugene had me shooting backstage for many of the brands which his StyleZeitgeist website and magazine aligned with. The past was behind us, and it was a really nice change of pace.

Over the past decade I have read many articles and blurbs by shared and/or penned by Eugene. He is ne of the very few people in this industry who seem to hold no fear critical criticism and (thankfully) honesty. Fashion media and journalism holds a barrage of ass-kissers in reserve, and Eugene’s nose seems to stay clean as a whistle. Integrity intact. Authenticity maintained.

The first person to call bullshit when bullshit is presented.

It's been about one and a half years since I first asked Eugene to allow me to photograph him for Context. There didn’t seem to be a rush in my head, as our schedules overlap nearly every day. In a pocket of downtime, we met at Place des Vosges. In a pocket of downtime, we met at Dreamin’ Man. In a pocket of downtime, I followed Eugene to a car with Nick Wooster. And in a pocket of downtime, we walked home from the Fortezza da Basso. Not until the last pocket, did I feel that the photos were ready.

It's tough to hang out with someone who has so much to say. You spend a large amount of the time playing catch up catching one another up on the day/week/fashion week/season. A coffee or a transit between shows is not enough to get past the banter, and I have found that, aside from the photographers who I spend most of my time and days with, it is rare to have time to get to a real conversation with people.

Eugene took me on a tour of the city of Florence. We went to one place only. In a city which I have visited 23 times, finding something new is not common. Eugene took me to a place only 200 meters from my hotel which I hadn’t visited before: an old movie theater converted into a bookstore. It might not be new to you, but it was new to me. We had a coffee in the bookstore’s café, and then Eugene walked me back to my hotel, where in the last few meters of the trip we talked about architecture at Yale and his life in Hudson, New York and having lived in the city for 32 years.

I joined Eugene’s StyleZeitgeist forum on the 29th of June in 2009, and in 2025 I am sharing this with you. StyleZeitgeist was a place where I found many of the people who I now consider to be my friends. Patrick, Alex, Wei, Mike, Danny, Sam, Joseph, Peter, and more. Eugene created that venue for us, but somehow it took me the longest of all to connect with him and finish this story.

Thanks, Eugene.