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NOVEMBER 2020
INTERVIEW WITH Celia Croft
In between the truth and the surreal, there’s Celia Croft’s visual garden of Eden. It’s a queer and eerie safe space, inhabited by hybrid creatures bearing scars from this world and escaping beyond the common.
“I think that surreal stuff comes to real life and sometimes the real-life can seem surreal. The blending of these two worlds is what I’m interested in. Merging them,” Celia explains her outlook at the world through the lenses. Even though her idea of what creative concepts she wants to explore seems obvious now, it became clearer with time.
Dabbling into arts since school, she enrolled on Fashion Photography course at Falmouth University (graduated this year). “I’ve realised that’s the only thing I want to do and I was interested in,” she says. Even though the university let her immerse herself into photography and expand social network without having to struggle with every art novice’s nightmare, finances, Celia doesn’t agree that academic background is necessary. “I think it gave me time to develop a style without having to actually earn any money because I was a student. So, it gave me time to be able to create and obviously facilities. I actually I don’t know if uni is that important but I think that the time is important. To put all the time into and have the tutors there to support you and kind of teach you about it,” she shares.
Despite finding her style, Celia avoids being stuck in one mindset or medium so she flips between photo and videography, always adding different and one-off pieces to her photo-puzzles like projects. “I think the vision is just like a blend of all the things I like. The blend of the books I read, the people I’ve seen, people I’m around,” she says, and talks about her musings: “Artists, books, like real-life situations, inspire me a lot. Just kind of going to new places and just sitting around, looking at people: what they wear, who they are. Just creating those kinds of characters from these people in my life.”
Except for geeking out on Iain McKell's’ documentary-style album on subcultures ‘Fashion Forever’, for now, Celia prefers to stay an observer in the photography world. Getting a taste of it while shooting editorials with models or fashion shows backstage e.g., Loverboy or Art School runways, she’s closing in on the outside. For the sake of her art. “Recently I’ve actually tried to stop looking at like fashion photographers because I think I don’t want to be influenced too much by other people that are kinda doing the same thing,” she says and explains how during her lockdown stay in Cornwall forced her to focus on and develop a deep artistic understanding with the only muse available at the time – herself.
“Recently I feel stuck shooting other people because I’ve just been shooting myself for so long. It just feels unnatural to shoot anyone else. When you’re doing it yourself, you can wake up in the morning and be like: ‘Oh I wanna do this today’. You don’t have to rely on anyone else or plan anything because it’s just you and there’s no pressure. If you don’t like it then no one will know that you even did it. What I quite like, the fact that no one is even like ask to see the photos or anything. I think it’s important to not have any pressure,” Celia says and condemns the toxic productivity environment originating from social media.
The pressure of self-reflection upon your own art is overwhelming enough. “I don’t like any work that I do after I’ve done it. So, I try not to look at it or anything after I’ve done it. I think that just comes with making stuff, this is the pressure of looking back at your own work too much is hard,” she says and shares that despite that she likes the auto-portraits series as it’s her at the most authentic and personal level.
Having experienced the pains and pleasures of working on your own, Celia came to the conclusion that she needs her community and like-minded creatives to fully realise her future projects. “I hope to be able to continue to explore my ideas and flow of creative direction in everything I do. To be able to have a team that I work with that we all have like a collective vision because I understand that you can’t just do everything by yourself,” she says.
Her current, and still in-works, visual project ‘what does Britain feel like?’ was fuelled by the anger and confusion caused by expanding nationalistic wave in the UK in 2019. “This project started from the feelings I was having last year about Brexit and the whole thing around borders: what Britain is and why we’re trying to close off the borders. […] Britain is just typically quite a patriotic place and it’s not necessarily good that it’s patriotic because I think that patriotism comes in a really negative way. I’ve been trying to explore that and explore it through the series of characters I’ve invented. It’s an on-going project so I’m still working on it now. And I’m hoping to be able to create a series of films with it that all work together but are independent and, possibly, an exhibition,” Celia shares.
While Croft's photos are often otherworldly and detached from the everyday sceneries, she examines the reality close-up in videos that often criticise the poor state of modern society. In ‘The West Is Dead’ she interpreted the absurdity of cycle-like lifestyle in late capitalism. “That video is about routine and the fact that the western world is just so routinised, especially in London and big cities. It’s going around in circles like the big wheel of life: making money, paying rent, going round, round and round,” she explains. Despite Celia's conviction that we’re imprisoned for life and will always be stuck in the system, she’s got some advice on how to ditch the devilish reality. Even if for a while.
“We’re so affected by it that I even don’t think that anything can stop it really. I think it’s just continuing to go and I guess that making art is like a coping mechanism to that and getting out of that wheel. Being able to express yourself in a different way and have more of a free lifestyle rather than climbing up the ladder, the property ladder and all of that stuff that comes with ‘good’ way of living your life,” she says.
Celia Croft’s art pokes fun at the seemingly omnipotent dogmas dictating the proper ways of existing, dressing and performing individual identity. She’s here to make sure that anything that does not fit into the scheme, will find its representation somewhere else. Preferably at her own exhibition.
“I want to make like a body of work and look forward to actually presenting it in kind of an installation way. I find that really fun to bring people together physically into your world. I think that physical is really important because everything it so online now,” she explains. While waiting for Celia’s world to materialise and prepare yourself for the experience, check out her website and Instagram page for a pretaste.
Interviewed and Written by Aleksandra Brzezicka
OCTOBER 2020
ARTIST OF THE MONTH : Joshua R Drake
For Joshua R Drakes, Manchester-based digital graphic and photographer, the main role of an artist is to tell the original story. Tune out the rest and stand on your own, confidently. Today, via the Zoom interview (safety first), Joshua talked visions coming to life, trusting your imagination and his brand-new project, Seeing Red.
Scrolling down Joshua’s Instagram page, you get instantly mind-blown by the beauty of his world. It’s tempting to immerse yourself in that visual feast for senses, encompassing anything that best fashion photography can offer – a mystery, mastery and a moment of nostalgia for the missed eras. No wonder that his work was featured in Kaltblut and Toksick magazines, or that he was commissioned by brands like Kustom London, Astrid & Miyu and Sticks and Stones Agency. For a single shoot to embody such a complex experience, you need a raw talent behind the lenses. A talent polished by years of practice.
“Before photography, I was doing digital art and I’ve studied that as a part of a university course for about a year. I’ve dropped out due to other reasons but I’ve kept in touch with it here and there. When I did my artworks and stuff like that, I’ve started combining some of the things I’ve seen around on the internet and then I’ve eventually saved up for my own camera and got back into it. That was about 4/5 years ago," Joshua says.
Despite having no academic background in photography, Drakes has provided the education he needed out of his own initiative. “I was self-taught: all through YouTube, videos and just going out there shooting with my friends and learning the basics,” he says. Dazed or i-D's editorials inspired him to pursue his passion and, step-by-step, build-up his career. “Everything was from scratch because I knew how to use a camera but not to the degree I do now,” he recalls.
While his graphics are something that Magritte and Warhol would create if they were ever to collaborate, Joshua’s photography draws on somewhat more modern aesthetics. “There are some parts of me that wish I was in the 90s so I could photograph the 90s supermodel era. I love it,” he shares. It’s not surprising that among his role models are superstar photographers like Peter Lindbergh and Helmut Newton; and muses Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Rihanna. Though his influences don’t close off to one genre only. “I’m also very inspired by artists like Basquiat or Andy Warhol. […] One of my favourite film directors is Wong Kai-Wai who’d done a film called ‘In The Mood For Love’ which is one of my all-time favourites. When I feel like I need inspiration, I watch it again, again and again,” photographer reveals.
Joshua shoots mostly digital as it lets him carry out his concepts to the smallest details. “I’m not really the biggest fan of film because it’s quite tedious and a lot of things can go wrong and I don’t like things going wrong,” he says and adds: “I would shoot film more but I just feel like, for my style of work, film wouldn't suit it. Well, maybe it would but if I’m shooting film it would be with like a point & shoot which is easy to do.” He isn’t the one to put limitations on what might be exciting or possible in the future. “I feel like my style has changed as I’ve changed as a person,” he says.
“I don’t want to be boxed into this type of work when all of my work comes from me. I want people to understand that being you, being your own inspiration and creating work from your own mind is the best way to be. You don’t have to follow trends because trends come and go. Just be you, create what you are interested in,” Joshua says on the meaning behind the shoots.
From the need to express himself to any extent he wants to, and irritation at almost random rules of accepting one’s photos, Joshua has created his own digital platform, under the slogan - ‘This is not for you, this is for me’.
“‘Seeing Red’ comes from a place where I was feeling rejected by all the magazines, I was sending my work to. I was getting declined. Still, it was a long-time that I was having people saying ‘why don’t you just make your own’ and I’ve eventually decided to go on and started it. It’s a place that I can change to be to whatever I need it to be. […] It’s basically a platform for me to create for myself and not have to conform to all the magazines' guidelines,” he explains.
Though it’s still a baby-project, it has already become Joshua’s pride and joy, showcasing his best shoots. Asked for his favourite one, he didn’t hesitate long: “This one above my head here [pointed at the photo behind him], with the horns. When I saw my friend post that, I was like ‘I need to shoot that’, he says. […] I mean I haven’t seen anyone here doing something like that. I just love this singular image out of entire shoot so I just basically post it everywhere. If I’m posting it a lot, it means that’s my all-time favourite”. Ours too. It’s devilishly dazzling.
If you’re a creative, trying to make it happen in this crazy, crazy industry, you’d normally reach out to like-minded people in your community. Though, according to Drakes, it’s not as easy, even in one of the biggest cities in the UK.
“I’d describe the Manchester scene as very commercial because we’ve got all of the big fast-fashion brands over here like PrettyLittleThings or BooHoo. I’ve seen so many photographers just copy that style and I feel like the scene here is very repetitive. Myself and my own work, I feel like I stand out because I don’t really do what everyone else is doing. I have a lot of issues with how photographers just copy trends because everyone basically creates just the same looking work and it’s hard to identify who is who. You see so many people’s work that looks the same. Everyone is copying each other and no one is really stepping out of the box and not following what’s the cool new thing or what’s been going on,” he comments.
Fortunately, Joshua R Drakes’s speciality is stepping out of the box and then, when it becomes too tight, just leaving it behind. “I used to call my artworks ‘fragments of my imagination’ because everything came from my imagination and I feel the same way about Seeing Red. Everything comes from my imagination and I want Seeing Red to be me in a package,” he shares.
What started out of as a survival-driven concept conveyed in lockdown, is now Joshua’s main-focus project that consumes most of his time. “I only started it in July and it just took over my life,” he says. Fingers crossed that it’ll take over the internet so Joshua will be a few steps closer on the path to becoming neo-Helmut Newton, photographing supermodels of this decade.
Interviewed and Written by Aleksandra Brzezicka