“I think it was the film Funny Face with Fred Astaire,” says Glen Luchford of his first encounter with fashion. “Then seeing local Teddy Boys at a dance hall in the 1970s.” The same clash of aesthetics—Hollywood-style glamour meets gritty subculture—pulses through the British photographer’s new Rizzoli-published monograph, Pictorialism. Previewed here for the first time, the inexhaustible survey flits from snapshots Luchford took of his school friends during his self-taught years, to his epoch-defining commissions for The Face and high-concept campaigns for Prada. “I did a layout like this for a magazine and it was dropped, but something about it stayed with me and I kept returning to it,” he says of the diaristic style, which brings together collected tear sheets, prints and personal Polaroids (including one of a fledging Kate Moss). “I did a more conventional layout and it looked terrific, but I had a niggling feeling to do something more, so I showed it to Mario Sorrenti and Mary Frey and they both gave me a kick up the ass.” Never limiting himself to one creative outlet, Luchford transplanted the grunge spirit that defined 1990s Brit fashion to his latest venture, The Rose Hotel, a newly opened hangout overlooking Venice Beach, California. Read on for the photographer’s reflections on highs, lows and the future of fashion.

It’s your second book. What story did you want to tell with Pictorialism?
Glen Luchford: The book stems from my Instagram account. I liked the random nature of the images without any reason or idea: just a flow of this and that. It’s cathartic in a way to be rid of any system or design philosophy. Just slap it down on the page and if it feels good, it’s ok.

What were the highs and lows that emerged when putting it together?
GL: The highs were digging out pictures of old schoolmates and them somehow flowing nicely into a picture of a supermodel. They’re all fashion photographs, in the end. And the lows were creating huge files of 100 pages or more and forgetting to hit the save button, losing a days work—sometimes you never get it as good again and it bugs you forever.

Do you ever get nostalgic about fashion?
GL: I’m a tedious bore if you get me started on this subject, actually, but in reality it’s all nonsense as we complained all the time in the late 1980s or early 90s about how dreadful it was then compared to the 1960s and 70s. And in 20 years from now fashion people will say to the kids that are starting now: “You were so lucky to work in the last printed era of fashion.”

What was the last film or director to inspire you?
GL: I loved True Detective. I’m a TV fan through and through, so this kind of floated my boat.

And what’s your prediction for fashion pictures?
GL: Clicking on a picture to purchase an item is a game changer. It will drive all imagery and film from here on out.

Pictorialism will be published later in the year by Rizzoli.