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Tommy Ton has become one of the most recognized names in street style.RACHEL IDZERDA FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL

He came to fame by photographing the fabulous shoes of the fashionable. Since then, Tommy Ton has become one of the most recognized names in street style. This Saturday he's up for Fashion Blogger of the Year at the Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards. Here, Ton shares some of the secrets to his success, including knowing when it's okay to miss out on something.

Authenticity is always in fashion

When street style started out, it was about something that was totally natural and effortless. Those are still my favourite people to photograph – the ones who totally ignore me, the editors who are at Fashion Week to do their job, and who don't even care about the whole vanity street-style thing. The more they neglect me, the more I'm getting the sort of images I'm looking for. There's something more cinematic about an image where someone is running to a show and not even aware of my camera. It's so much more exciting than those people who are posing – just starving to be photographed. People think they are being subtle, but you can totally tell. Even at men's fashion weeks, I'll see these guys who have this idea of what a typical "street-style" photograph looks like, and they'll try to repeat that imagery because they think that's what I'm looking for: they'll wear the stacks of arm bracelets, roll up their sleeve, put one leg up on a ledge and smoke. It's funny how that has become so cliché.

How to outfox the copycats

Since I've become recognized, getting unique pictures has become more difficult. It doesn't matter if I start photographing a young girl or a 60-year-old woman, the minute I start focusing on them, they become street-style bait. A person will be standing there for the longest time and nobody cares and the second I pull out my camera, everyone does. There's one woman who just completely blows my mind. She's not well-known, but she is so stylish and I see her every time I go to Italy. I'll make eye contact with her and motion that we should move away from the crowd, so that I can get her picture without everyone else jumping on it. It's almost a high to get the only photograph of a certain person in a certain outfit.

The cure for Fashion Week FOMO

For so many years, I felt like I had to be at every single show and capture every single movement. And then I had this realization when I thought, you know what, I'm going to go have lunch and if I miss the show, I miss the show. I started taking a cue from Phoebe Philo at Céline, who said that living life without certainty is probably the greatest thing. It's so true and now I've gotten comfortable with the fact that sometimes I am going to miss something and it's not the end of the world.

Be careful what you wish for

When I started out, it was about being outside the show. Getting into a show was a dream come true. This was a time when people thumbed their noses at bloggers, and then everything started changing. There was the famous show where they invited a few bloggers and sat us in the front row with our own computers. That was a big statement, but then over the past several years it has really gotten out of control. To just invite anyone just for the sake of getting images on social media makes everything feel a bit less special – it's less about the clothes and more about the marketing. Fashion is not fashion with a capital F any more. Everything has become so exposed and accessible. I remember when I would have to go every Thursday to buy the newspaper from a stand to read the reviews of the new collection. And now you can watch everything on YouTube. The mystery is gone.

Interview has been condensed and edited by Courtney Shea.

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