Style & spirit

Born in Malibu and based in Los Angeles, American Robert Spangle’s photographic journey is a Hollywood script with a dashing lead. Peter Dench finds out more

The name is Spangle, Robert Spangle. It was Spangler on the German side of his father’s family, who emigrated in the late 1800s when names that were too foreign were being Americanised. Spangle was definitely more American.

Perhaps it was the German heritage that had Spangle signing up for the US Marine Corps in 2007, aged 17 and a half. More likely it was the earlier attacks of 9/11 on the impressionable boy.

The name didn’t help him blend into the military. You go by your last name. He found himself presenting his star Spangle manners in front of every formation and meeting high-ranking officials. While serving in the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion (2nd Recon), training and working in South America, North Africa, the Middle East, with multiple deployments to Afghanistan, there were seeds of his photographic future.

‘When I was starting in the military, we were given this amazing suite of Canon cameras with every lens imaginable, 400mm lens, 800mm lenses but I avoided it, it was all heavy and I didn’t want to carry it,’ explains the 34-year-old. ‘I understood ISO and aperture and things like that. I was editing photos; in my special forces team I was the guy who ran communications and I was also the one compiling our reports from the ground. The guy on the team who was taking photos was physically handing the card off to me and I was with a tarp over my head and editing them on a Toughbook, trying to get license plate information or a clear image of someone’s face.’

Designer start

Exiting the Marines, art school and a stint as a designer followed before an apprenticeship in England at Savile Row Bespoke Academy (founded by Andrew Ramroop OBE, Master Tailor and Director of Maurice Sedwell). Over the year and a half working on Savile Row, Robert realised he didn’t have the 20-year attention span needed to become a master tailor and turned his attention to photography and the streets of the fashionable west London Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

‘I started taking photos when I could, around a pretty demanding apprenticeship,’ he says. ‘I’d take photos on my way to work and wake up early to do that. On the way back it was dark. Sometimes you could take photos. In the neighbourhood you had quite posh, stylish locals. It was a really good way to get into street photography. I was new to the country and was studying the place.’

Big break

Without agenda or expectation, Robert archived his street-style photographs on microblogging social-media platform Tumblr. He continues, ‘One day I got an email out of the blue from a younger editor at GQ who’s now a very senior editor in the fashion world and he said, I’ve seen your work, would you like to do stories for u