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Ike Udesimages of actor Colman DomingoforVogues May 2025 issue are quite stunning.
Photo: Courtesy of Iké Udé
Yet all of this is typical of Ude, a Nigerian-American artist, author, and publisher ofaRUDEmagazine.
So, he and I met via Zoom one gloomy, gray New York morning.
After agreeing that we both absolutely love this kind of weatherI know, what can I say?
Portrait of the artist as a dapper man: Iké Udé’s personal style is as distinctively elegant and considered as his images.
Call us crazywe got down to business.
Vogue: Ike, thanks for doing this.
Oh, I am glad you said Ingress name first.
Colman Domingo in Wing & Weft gloves. Bailey 1922 hat. Michael German Antiques cane. Bode shoes. Dolce & Gabbana Alta Sartoria jacket, vest, and trousers. Photographed by Iké Udé,Vogue, May 2025.
Despite studying art history, his name has always been one Ive mangled the pronunciation of!
And theres a book on VelazquezsLas Meninas, which also went into the details of this epic painting.
So we agreed that we ought to do both portraiture and details too, which was Rauls idea.
Iké Udé’s dandy-ish self-portrait was used for the cover of Monica Miller’sSlaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.
At that time, the camera wasnt in play.
Today we live in a time of go, go, goeverythings fast.
So I work with that kind of disposition and temperament in the photographic medium.
Is there one image which you find particularly inspirational?
Have you always been a photographer?
I was a painter quite a long time ago, from around 1988, 1989, to about 1994.
They were not into modernism.
He would have wanted you to keep painting!
Do you still paint?
I do, Im just painting in a different medium.
Lets go back to Mr. Domingo.
How did you prepare for the shoot?
Ive not posted anything in two years, for example.
I just love the quiet, being absentand having this serene pop in of existence.
I have an almost monk-like disposition, whereby I dont want to be seen.
I just do the work and hide.
Was there any research you used while thinking about how to photograph Colman?
Their style, and their body language, is very alluring and smart and respectable.
He loved them, and so then I showed them to Mr. Domingo.
The idea was the images would be a starting point, and something that we would then depart from.
They were to give us a loose framework.
Thats how we worked.
How was it on set when you were shooting?
I was directing him, and at one point, people said, Oh, Colman wants your attention.
So I went over to chat, and he said, Ike, I know what you want.
Let me give you what you want without much directing.
I am an actor, not a model.
Im grateful to Dame Anna Wintour for pairing Mr. Domingo with me.
What about the clothes he was wearing?
What were your thoughts on those?
Im partial to tailoring.
I love tailored clothes, a certain fit, so we got it down to about five designers.
I hope you got at least one perfect 10!
Colman Domingo in Wing & Weft gloves.
Michael German Antiques cane.
Dolce & Gabbana Alta Sartoria jacket, vest, and trousers.
Photographed by Ike Ude,Vogue, May 2025.
Ike, Id love to ask you about your lighting, which I think is exquisite.
There are no harsh shadows.
Its very, very forgiving.
I should light my office that way.
Slightly changing tack, Id like to ask you about your own wonderful sense of style.
Its the very definition of elegance to me….
Its whimsical.
Its founded on a uniform.
Thats how we dressed there.
That has always been the foundation of the dandy tradition.
But maybe we can talk about the exhibition first….
Ive been a special consultant for the exhibition.
And I loved playing that.
Is there one aspect, one era, of the exhibition that youre particularly drawn to?
Monica and Andrew elected to have me curate a section called Presence, which is about the Regency period.
Lastly, tell me about the epilogue.
Is there one particular maxim or comment thats your favorite?
Theres one that just came out of nowhere.
It is one of those things I wrote when I was thinking about the tactility of fabrics.
Might I read it to you?
What narcotic savor, the caresses of a silk collar shirt on the neck.
What scandalous sweetness, as the hands slip through the near-haughty sleeves of a dry-cleaned cotton shirt.
These are but a few of the 1,001 pleasures of dressing.
Or even roommates, if you like.
So theres a mutual agreement between the two, or mutual benefits, that are quite tolerableor even pleasurable.
It came out of nowhere when I wrote it.
Its a bit naughty, but I quite like it!
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
