DoBeDo's new collection kicks off with the 2025 calendar, where thirteen contributors reflect on their personal relationships with photography through an image submission and a short written entry.

The calendar features documentation of well-loved cameras, scans of darkroom sketchbooks, early photographs, and more. At the end of the year, detach the diary pages and the calendar transforms into a photobook to keep in your library.

Contributors include Will Robson-Scott, Abdulhamid Kircher, Jack Davison, Guy Bolongaro, Justin Quinnell, Nadia Lee Cohen, Motoyuki Daifu, Thomas Mailaender, Johny Pitts, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Nick Haymes, Frank Lebon and Marton Perlaki

Photo Nerds Photobook Calendar

For Bobby Lee, a photographer who’s spent the last 30 years unofficially documenting fashion’s biggest names, it’s not about the glamour of Fashion Week. Instead, it’s the simple, human moments. “Some models gave the photos to their mums for the refrigerator,” he says.

When Fashion Week rolls into the cities of New York, London, Milan and Paris, the streets transform into a spectacle of glammed-up figures, each vying for their moment in the spotlight. Positioned at the sideline, on the edge of stardom and glam, there tends to be a different kind of crowd – a pack of hobby photographers wielding cameras as they duck in and out of traffic, their lenses fixated on anyone who catches their eye.

Bobby Lee has been part of this cohort for the past 30 years. A retired maths and computer science teacher from Jacksonville, Florida, Bobby stumbled upon Fashion Week in New York by chance, during a serendipitous stroll through Bryant Park in 1995. He was immediately hooked, and what began as a side interest quickly became an obsession. He has since built a personal archive of thousands of photos, all shot at the fringes of high fashion. Until now, these images have never been published.

In 2012, filmmaker Salome Oggenfus met Bobby while waiting outside the Oscar de la Renta show at New York Fashion Week – a busy event that saw celebrities like Nick Minaj in attendance. As they chatted in line, Bobby excitedly whipped out an album of 4x6 photographs he’d taken of models over the years. Salome was immediately struck by the quality of his work, as well as his great sense of humour. When she asked, “Did you take all these pictures?” Bobby, with a grin, joked that he’d clipped them from a magazine.

The pair have been working together ever since, turning Bobby’s archive into a documentary film entitled 

named after one of Bobby’s old Facebook albums where he used to upload his photos

 Both are set to release this month.

When I log into Zoom, Salome is sitting cross-legged on the floor, smiling patiently as we navigate decades of technology – phone, Whatsapp, Skype, Zoom – to bring Bobby into the conversation. He doesn’t have a mobile, nor does his laptop have a camera or microphone. Instead, he dials in from his landline. Cheerful and full of energy, he’s fresh from another New York Fashion Week, his Southern drawl cackling through Salome’s phone speaker. We spent the next hour discussing their 12-year friendship, the thrills of capturing the energy of the fashion world, and how the so-called ‘inner circle’ may not be as intimidating as it seems.


Ayla: So how was New York Fashion Week this year?

 It felt more scaled back. Normally, I’d take around 12,000 photos, but this time, I made less than 4,000. Still, a few wonderful people I love meeting crossed my path, so I’m happy about those moments and choose to forget what I missed.



 My connection to Fashion Week came through filming Bobby, and since that project has ended, I’m quite tangential to the world of fashion now. I am not directly involved anymore. My involvement was really parallel to my time filming him.



Ayla: How did you both come to meet each other?

 It was in 2012, over ten years ago, at the Oscar de la Renta show in New York. We were outside the New York Public Library on 42nd Street. There was a big crowd – I think Nicki Minaj was there. At the time, I already knew Damien [Bobby’s fellow photographer], who I was also filming for the same project. We met when I was working at a casting company, and he was an intern there. I got interested in his fascination with Fashion Week and his photography outside the shows, and I went along with him to a few events. Damien then said, "You have to meet Bobby. He’s the real deal." That’s when I saw your work, Bobby, and we had a brief conversation. Later, I went to Paris and started filming.

It wasn’t supposed to be a decade-long project; I went to Paris twice and filmed more often in New York because I lived there. Sometimes I had other people filming with me, and we would try to meet up with you, Bobby, which wasn’t always easy because you don’t have a phone. We’d show up at shows hoping you’d be there, and most days, we’d follow you guys around. It gave me a good insight into the stamina it takes to attend seven or eight fashion shows a day – it’s pretty demanding.

 Having someone film me while I was going about my usual routine was something I wasn’t used to.

Ayla: How long have you been doing this for, Bobby, and why do you do it?

 It all started in 1995 when I was still a teacher. I went to New York for Christo’s installation 

 in Central Park, and later that day, I stumbled upon Fashion Week at Bryant Park. The people were so open to being photographed, and that’s what drew me in. I retired a couple of years later and by 2008, I was travelling to New York, London, Milan and Paris for Fashion Week. I’ve been doing it every season since.

I’ve always loved street photography, and the warmth I felt from people at Fashion Week kept me going. I bring a book of photos from the previous season and try to reconnect with those I’ve photographed. It’s all about the kindness and the positive feedback I get from those moments. Now, I have a giant bookcase filled with all the photo books I’ve made.

When I started filming, Instagram existed, but it wasn’t what it is today. Some people used it, but it wasn’t a big thing yet. In many ways, Bobby’s photography felt like a precursor to how people now use platforms like Instagram – connecting with others through the images they take, sharing those images and receiving feedback. Today, that’s a common pattern.

Ayla: Bobby, who catches your eye when you're photographing models at Fashion Week? Who do you want to photograph the most?

 Well, I’ve come to know many of the greatest models, some for over 10 years. Coco Rocha, for example, I photographed her on a merry-go-round in 2008 or 2009. She did many shows in New York at this time. When you’re photographing someone, you don’t expect to cross paths again. But when you do, it’s a validation that I picked the right ones to focus on over the years.

Ayla: When you photograph the models, do you tend to have conversations with them? Your images feel very candid and relaxed.

 Often, I do. Some of these people I’ve been encountering for years, while others are brand new models that no one knows yet. But I don’t shut anything out – if you're walking down the sidewalk, you're fair game for me. I’m not photographing to sell; it's all about the kindness and connections I experience. And when I can hand them a photo from last time, that’s when it feels special. Some models tell me they gave the photos to their moms to put on the refrigerator. It’s those little moments that matter to me.

Ayla: Salome, what was it about Bobby’s work (and personality) that inspired you to start this project?

My main interest in starting this project was about examining the act of taking pictures, why we take pictures, the social function of photography and the exchange of value with images. Bobby very quickly revealed himself to be such a unique, entertaining and charming person that he seemed like a great person alongside whom I could explore these concerns.

Ayla: Salome, how did you want to translate Bobby’s work into this documentary? What was your main goal?

 Honestly, I didn’t have a specific goal. It was more of a journey to figure things out. I knew I wanted the film to be observational and for Bobby to speak for himself without any other people contextualising his work. I wanted viewers to come to their own conclusions. Beyond that, I was just curious and figuring things out as I went along, since it was my first film.

Ayla: How did you navigate consent while filming?

Since most of what we captured was on public streets, there was not a huge concern around consent beyond the protagonist's consent to be filmed which, of course, was always an ongoing conversation. Over the long time of filming there were times where certain things were off limits. The one thing I will say is that the draw of Fashion Week for Bobby and many other people is that most people who are there absolutely want to be recorded, or want their picture taken. Out of all the people at Fashion Week, Bobby was probably one of the least interested in having his picture taken or being filmed. This was an attractive quality to me in a world where a lot of people want attention and will happily put themselves on display. But there was more of a mystery to Bobby, more to find out.

Ayla: What did you learn from making this film? We’re discovering Bobby’s work, but also about this inner circle of models and beauty.

 Well, I live in New York, and as a creative, you often end up working adjacent to the fashion world because that’s where the money is. For many years, I was part of that world, but making this film helped me recontextualise my experience. I got to think about how creatives relate to the fashion industry and the allure of exclusivity that draws people in. It made me reflect on who’s on the inside, who’s on the outside, and how we all relate to that dynamic.

Ayla: Bobby, what are your thoughts on the ‘inside circle’? Do you ever want to be on the inside, or are you happy being on the outside?

 I’m not a fashion person, so being on the inside or outside doesn’t really matter to me. The human connections are what reward me. I don’t do it for money, and I’ve never sold a photo. It’s just about being connected to amazing individuals, and that’s enough for me.

Ayla: Do you think you’ll continue photographing Fashion Week or are you tempted to photograph other subjects?

 If I go for a walk, I’ll photograph birds or the creek, but next week, I’ll be in Paris photographing Fashion Week again. I’m documenting the history of street photography in a way, but I never tell anyone that. I just let the work speak for itself.

Ayla: Do you have any favourite memories or funny moments from when you’re out photographing?

 Oh, there are many. I try to keep a smile and a sense of goodness when I’m assembling my Fashion Week book. Smiles are my first requirement. I didn’t think about it at first, but now, after taking hundreds of photos a day, I select the moments that resonate with me. It's not just about knowing someone – it’s about capturing that expression of happiness.

Ayla: Salome, do you have any memorable stories from making the film?

 There were many! One time, we had a picnic outside the Tuileries in Paris on the last day of Fashion Week. We’d gather grapes and chicken while they took down the Fashion Week tents around us. It became a simple but lovely tradition.

On the opposite end, one time in Florida, Bobby and I got stuck in a foresty environment with a lot of mosquitoes. We had to climb over a fence to escape – it was a far cry from Fashion Week, but still a bonding moment.

Ayla: Bobby, you mentioned the joy in street photography. Is that a big part of what motivates you?

 Yes. There’s a sense of history in what I do. I’m not just picking the next person who walks by – I’m making a judgement about exceptional photography. And that’s what keeps me going.

Ayla: Salome, do you see yourself continuing in documentary filmmaking after this project?

 Recently, I’ve been focusing more on live performance, but I’m sure I’ll return to filmmaking at some point. Maybe not another 10-year project right away, though!

Ayla: Bobby, do you have a main narrative or story you hope people take away when they see your new collection of photos or the film?

 I’m happy with the production and the story we’ve told. Whether people understand everything or not, I just hope they respect it and take away some sense of what’s going on. That’s what matters.

Ayla: Do you both think you’ll work together again in the future?

 No clue, but I’m impressed with the film. Salome did a fantastic job, and I have a lot of respect for her work.

 on the 8th November and launching the same day on 

A Retired Teacher’s Unexpected Foray Into Fashion Photography

no photos! no photos!!
i'm just here to see.
i do not want to be immortalised
whilst wearing this tee.
please respect my privacy,
on no negative i will appear.
find someone else to shoot
i wasn't even here.

DoBeDo T-shirts are made from 100% organic cotton. Cut, sewn and printed in Portugal.

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'NO PHOTOS' T-Shirt

At Climax books, the sensory worlds of individual artists come together in striking fashion. There are newly printed posters of Sophy Ricketts’ 

 alongside visions of Tokyo-bacchanal from Nan Goldin and Nobuyoshi Araki, among many other rare objects and telling pieces of ephemera. Founded by fashion editor and Acne Studios Chief Marketing Officer Isabella Burley in 2020, the distributor of rare books and unique objects now has storefronts in London and New York. We sat down with Isabella to talk about how she built her collection and some of her favourites so far. 

Is there a photography book you're looking at right now? What page are you on?

Yes! We've just received our new Martine Syms 

 back from the printers. It's a big, almost 600 page survey of Martine's image-making over the last ten years. I'm on page 308.

What photography book do you most often recommend to customers and why?

It changes all the time, which makes it fun. Our customers in NYC are so different from our customers in London. The last three were Hiromix, 

 was her first photobook and it's just so so special. Some of the images were taken when she was just 17 years old. I love the picture of Sofia Coppola in the book. Five years after the book was published in 2003, Hiromix had a cameo in Sofia’s cult, Tokyo-set film 

What sort of work do you like to publish? How do you find it and how do you choose?

I'm always drawn to archival bodies of work that have been overlooked or under-recognised. I also love to see outtakes! The images that didn't make the final edit, but feel equally important. I found 

 by Sophy Rickett 1995 when I was volunteering at Oxfam Books, it was just one image inside a little art magazine. I needed to know more! So a few years later I emailed Sophy and found out she had only officially published 2 images but had many others in her collection.

which I published in 2018. I knew and loved the Comme des Garçons campaign of the two girls with braces, but didn't know the story behind it. Then Jim Britt (the photographer) saw an article I had written about how much I loved the image and got in touch to send me a print. I had no idea he was behind the image, which was a makeshift photo session with his two daughters that  ran in People Magazine (where Rei Kawakubo saw it and licensed it for a campaign). So I asked Jim if I could make a book featuring all of the outtakes from that photo shoot – the joyful, awkward images of his daughters. This was the first book I ever published.




What is the last photograph you took? Can you share it with us?

The light was amazing in London this morning. So I took some pics of my house and the flowers in the farmers market.

Do you take pictures aside from with your phone? If so, what camera do you use and why?

I wish I did! I used to have disposable cameras when I was a teenager




Can you send us a photograph or page that represents an important moment or memory related to your book collection?

My signed Detail mag covers from Traci Lords ♡♡♡

How did your childhood inform what you do today? Did you grow up surrounded by art / books?



Yes, I grew up in a house filled with books and art! My Dad doesn't own a mobile phone and reads every day. The stairs and rooms are all filled with books. I'm going with my Dad to the Francis Bacon exhibition tomorrow :)




What would you be doing if you weren't running Climax and working in fashion?

I couldn't imagine doing anything else. I love what I do. 




More publishing, more fashion collabs and maybe a space in LA!

Photobook Recommendations From Isabella Burley of Climax Books

LOVERS ETERNAL - FINAL DROP - SPOOKY-DO!

Dedicated to moments of beautiful surrender; become entangled in webs of charm and desire.

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Jason Evans has been producing his eclectic images at the boundaries of fashion, music and street photography since the early 1990s. His photographs and assemblage are exhibited internationally, and his seminal series 

 is held in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery.

, a website where he posts a photograph of something that's made him happy in a deliberate gesture to highlight the good and the joyful, with the belief that positive will bring positive. The image remains for 24 hours and is then replaced, with no online archive.

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, we’ve created five limited-edition sets of playing cards, each featuring 52 unique images from Evans' archive of the project. Ahead of the release, legendary designer, stylist and fellow East Kent expat Carri Munden sat down with Evans to discuss 

 and the part it has played in Evans’ practice over the last twenty years.

"I love that after years of friends or mutual connections trying to arrange a meeting or working collaboration in London, that Jason and I met organically by both moving to the Thanet coast." Munden says, "I think we both made it home for very similar reasons. Although we still have not worked together, I enjoy the creative collaboration that is our friendship. I have learnt things about myself through friendship with Jason, and I value the inspiration but also his kindness, honesty and protection."

Jason Evans: Hey Carri! I am really glad you were able to fit this in, as our trust and understanding of one another, and the contexts we’ve worked in bodes well for our chat. That’s unusual in these circumstances, a treat.

CM: Clicking through these The Daily Nice images is pure JOY. They are the Everyday elevated. A visual diary with recurring visual forms. I imagine this repetition is unconscious. It feels very pure, a visual stream of consciousness. But are these images also about personal memories and emotions or moments? Or is it purely about the image?

JE: The audience was only ever supposed to see one picture at a time, a bunch of the images can feel like a potentially overwhelming carnival of eye candy, which you were subjected to for the purposes of this conversation. The Daily Nice pictures are the outcome of my compulsively ‘pointing’ at things that give me visual pleasure, and wanting to share that as positive affirmation. The repetition of subject matter or motif was unconscious, but over 20 years it has revealed my obsessions back to me, made me more self aware as a creative. I see that I am more consistent than I realised, which in turn gave me licence to go off piste. Some days I’m more oblique than others with a definition of ‘nice’ just to have fun with my audience.

CM: That is so special to be able to look back and learn something about yourself and your practise from these spontaneous moments. And there are a lot of circles. I use a lot of circles in my graphic design work – a circle is such a pure and pleasing form. It is organic / ancient / sci fi / pagan / powerful / calm. Would you agree?

JE: I know, right!? I don’t know what it is with me and circles, and stripes for that matter. I generally avoid triangles. Circles are definitely a calm thing for me. In ocular or photographic terms the circular is resonant. No Sun, arguably our biggest circle, no light. No light, no photography. And our eyeballs, plus our pupils are round, as are the lenses in our cameras. Our planet and on and on… I’m being a bit loosey-goosey here but I think you get where I’m coming from.

CM: Post covid lockdowns I had social anxiety for the first time in my life. When I left the house, especially on my first trip back to London, I found myself instinctively counting squares and breaking every street view down to its simple geometric forms.This meant I could ignore the humans, the crowds, the threat. A kind of visual disassociation, self-regulation I guess. Is The Daily Nice a form of visual Therapy?

JE: Totally! I too experience social anxiety, in cities anyway, and when I started making pictures, typically in the street, out and about, the camera acted like a bit of a shield, but also kind of gave me permission to go off and satisfy my curiosity and wanderlust. Photography helped me bridge the gap between where I was and where I could find myself, physically and mentally. Later on I got into the idea of photo-therapy from reading Jo Spence’s ‘Putting Myself in the Picture.’ I’ve had this ongoing push-pull with depression through my life, and having the daily nice program of photographing stuff that made me happy has set a positive agenda to my looking, and in turn to my being out in the world.

CM: I love that it has become such a positive daily practise. I really believe humans need ritual. It is powerful. 

As you said, each image only exists online for one day, why did you decide this? And how does it feel now seeing them all together as a collection?

JE: I don’t keep an archive or a record of the images, I’ve lost loads of them on old laptops, but I don’t mind, there’s always going to be more beauty, more inspiration, you just have to be tuned into it. That’s what the no archive policy implies, letting go is a radical act in a consumer culture. It’s about the process, the taking part, not accumulation.

I made an hour-long slide show of ‘nices’ with a soundtrack of ‘nice’ musics, like twinkly ambient and new age stuff, for the Bound Art Book Fair online edition, just to see what it felt like. I called it “too much of a good thing”. Seeing them all together makes me happy, and I was glad to hear you describe it as joyful. So much documentary photography is depressing, or depicts ‘difficult’ subject matter, which serves to reinforce the nervous narratives that keep people anxious. In balance, I need to believe that despite everything there is also hope and beauty. Agnes Martin said ‘beauty is the mystery of life’ and I believe her.

CM: Humans feature randomly and rarely in the The Daily Nice but there is always humour and play and signs of humans. Your portraits and Fashion editorials are the first I knew of your work and are always honest and magic. What attracts you to someone, makes you want to photograph them?

JE: Woah, good question. I am not sure exactly why but sometimes I’m just drawn to a person, not because of how they look, but maybe how they move or carry themselves. How they make me feel. That feeling can be so strong that I overcome social anxiety and go up to them and ask for a picture. In the 90s I used to do street casting for other photographers, and would have to interpret what their requirements were and it got  complicated, really interesting, like a creative social experiment.

CM: The Daily Nice is all about colour, texture, light, patterns and layers of all of these. They are snapshots, unintentional but perfect compositions. The result is sometimes very similar to your artworks made from collage. Do The Daily Nice images ever inspire other later more complex works?

JE: Typically my compositions simply place the visual pleasure in the centre of the frame, and are shot without looking at the screen, point and press. I generally photograph things as I first encounter them. The ‘snapshot’ aesthetic is approachable and signals informality. About 10 years ago I noticed that I was unconsciously playing more with the frame and the subject, the compositions became more deliberate. That coincided with how my other work had become more considered and self aware. I guess that has to do with age and experience and an ongoing exploration of the medium. The things that inspire me in the world have a definite impact on my other making, commissioned and personal. It’s a dialogue.

CM: This collection of images is incredibly personal but also accessible to anyone. Is this important to you? Do you want to talk about the work you do with SEN youth and adults?

JE: Accessibility is important to me, it’s part of why I do so little gallery work, and why I was initially drawn to magazines in the 80s. Having had the life experience of feeling othered, for my queerness and my neurotype, the idea of access became an important drive and led me to community work. Photography for me is an outward facing medium and it’s led me to think about who gets access, and to what, and how that can be broadened. That led to some useful personal development through working with marginalised groups including adults with learning disabilities, recovering addicts, immigrants and the children of refugees. It sounds altruistic, yet I get so much back from it. Those glorious, unselfconscious outcomes of the untrained eye in action reminds me that I can unlearn held beliefs about my process in order to develop.

CM: I absolutely agree I have done a lot of youth and outreach work and it's always a symbiotic experience. I have learnt so much about myself.

The Daily Nice started in 2004 pre-Instagram but the insta “photo dump” with a carefully considered post of memories and still life images is now iconic. I am interested in how Instagram as the first primarily image based social media platform has influenced visual aesthetics. I have a private IG as well as my main and when I first made it in 2013 I had no followers to start with and would post abstract but meaningful images from my day. The abstract narrative created from these posts means so much to me and probably only to me. What is your relationship with social media / instagram? How important was it to you that The Daily Nice was online? And to connect with others?

JE: I wanted to do an online project in 2004 because the internet was there, remember I’d spent like the first 30 years of my life in an offline world. I was curious. It gave me this comparatively cheap access to a potentially international audience. It felt like a no-brainer, the costs and constraints of a gallery show, that might only be seen by a couple of hundred local people, were prohibitive. Pocket digital cameras had become feasible too. I didn’t feel wedded to making physical stuff, there’s enough of that in the world already, and had always preferred the page to the wall. I optimistically thought the internet was going to be like the best library ever, and this was an opportunity to self publish there. Photography online felt like an exciting new frontier then… Now look at us!

Like everyone I struggle with Instagram’s addictive modus operandi and think it’s contributed to a photo-weariness in me. I don’t use a smartphone, I think they are sinister, even though the imaging tech is wild. I’ve stuck with Sony Cybershots for 20 years, the colours are great and the image quality doesn’t feel phone-y.

CM: Your work feels analogue even when shot or altered digitally. What is your relationship to digital technology as a whole?

JE: Technology is mostly inert, it’s just that it ends up in the hands of greedy idiots, guns don’t fire themselves. My practice is hybrid. I’m an either/and, not an either/or person. Sometimes I need the emo-texture that, say, screen print or Riso can give for a project. If I’m going to print or post I have to submit digital files, there’s no escaping that. I do hardly any post production, I just aim to get it right in the studio. I love happy accidents, that’s how we learn. Own a ‘mistake’ and it becomes your technique. Believe it or not, some clients afford me these parameters and trust my judgement. I’m just not a fix-it-in-post kinda guy.

CM: And why cards not a book? Especially cards you cannot potentially play with more than once. Is this intentionally subverting their use?

JE: I like applied photography, and I like playing cards as a format, they are a bit like t-shirts or record sleeves or badges or postcards, analogue holders for images. I love those Eames cards too, and wanted something that felt a bit like that. People often describe my work as playful, I’m serious about having fun I guess. Fun is a very special form of creative glue. If people want to memorise which image is on which card and cheat, well that’s just their problem. At the end of the day cheats are just playing themselves, and there’s no fun in that.

Carri Munden is Designer and founder of CassettePlaya. Cassette Playa was an independent lifestyle brand with a global reputation for cult graphics, progressive menswear, digital print and new technologies. Founded in 2006, Cassette Playa showed at London Fashion Week for 12 seasons, 8 of which were digital presentations. Cassette Playa used film, animation, soundscapes, augmented reality and interactive digital installations, to push the boundaries of Fashion presentation beyond catwalk. Carri is also a freelance Designer, Creative Director, Stylist and lecturer. Originally born in Kent she moved from London to Margate in 2019.

The Daily Nice playing cards are available to purchase from our shop 

Pointing at Joy: 20 Years of The Daily Nice by Jason Evans

R&T S1 E3 Abdulhamid Kircher

Filmed over the course of seven years, the photographer Abdulhamid Kircher evolves as his subjects shift from strangers, to nature, to self. His diaristic work becomes a reckoning of masculinity, heritage, and sense of belonging as he addresses his fractured relationship with his father. The film follows Abdul as he builds up to the release of his newly published monograph, 'Rotting From Within’.