Ellen Dahl of The Minneapoline

Who: Twenty-nine-year-old street fashion photographer Ellen Dahl’s blog, The Minneapoline (theminneapoline.blogspot.com), is showing the world just how fashionable Twin Citians can be. Her posts even caught the eyes of the editors at Glamour, and her blogs are now syndicated on glamour.com’s Slaves to Fashion blog.

Photographic Beginnings: “Photography has been a hobby of mine since high school,” says Dahl. “I have always had a peripheral interest in fashion that started with wearing vintage clothing, but I wasn’t always as knowledgeable as I hope I am now. Now I am much more interested in the story behind an outfit.” After graduating from Iowa State in 2003 with a degree in graphic design, Dahl became “almost obsessed” with street fashion blogs such as Garance Doré, Face Hunter, and The Sartorialist. She was surprised to find that the Twin Cities didn’t have a site devoted to street style, so she launched The Minneapoline in 2006.

Eye Catching:The Minneapoline tends to capture subjects who love vintage and experimenting with trend, but the site also has a distinctly Midwestern quality—lots of layering, moccasins, and buffalo plaid as well as a realistic, less trend-driven approach to dressing. “Something that is put together impeccably is easy to spot, but sometimes the look is more nuanced and the style is in the details. These are outfits that you need to stalk a little more,” Dahl says.

A Picture’s Worth 1,000 Words: Dahl refrains from editorializing her photos, instead leaving the interpretation up to her 400 unique daily visitors. “I don’t really write a lot about the outfits, because I don’t really think people are all that interested in what I have to say. And when I look at street fashion blogs, I never really read what is being said—I just look at the photos and draw my own conclusions.”

Twin Cities Style: Dahl credits our punk-rock history, Midwestern resourcefulness, and cabin fever– induced creativity for the schooled yet quirky style that’s at play in Minneapolis and St. Paul. “There is the New York look and the Paris look and the L.A. look, but we can do whatever we want here. Twin Citians pull ideas from these other cites and interpret them in their own way. And there is also a unique suburban style here that is still very untapped and unexamined.”

Future Shoots: While Dahl redesigns her blog this winter, she is also making plans to dive into wedding photography. “I am getting married in June and have been looking into photographers and have realized similarities in my style and that of the more voyeuristic and documentarian styles of wedding photography.”