INTERVIEW with Aleksa Babic - Belgrade based architect
Hello everyone!
We are back!
Today I would like to present to you a new interview, with one of my closest friends. Aleksa and I met in high school, then started the same Architecture University in Belgrade, that both dropped out of and went different directions, but the friendship stayed.
I hope you enjoy this read! Let me know in the comments :)
Q: Describe yourself in one sentence
A rockstar in an architect’s suit.
Q: Favourite colour?
All shades of grey with a golden accent.
Q: Favourite city/country?
Barcelona is my favourite city, and Italy is my favourite country, both of which I was fortunate enough to live in.
Q: What advice would you give to your younger self?
Just to keep going! The truth be told, I am still connected to my younger self, as much as my younger self was connected to its future self. It’s difficult to explain. I’m the same Aleksa, but with so many more layers. There has always been an inner voice that has helped me remain strong and has motivated me during difficult times, and I have always known that things will work out for me.
Q: What inspired you to focus on interior/space design?
I was doing my PhD studies in computational design in Paris when one morning I woke up feeling completely frustrated. I realised then that I didn’t want to do this anymore. It wasn’t the life I wanted. I had already spent a year in Barcelona completing my master’s in biodigital architecture & robotics, so I had to make a tough call after two years of studying that particular field of architecture. I had two choices - either to completely change the direction of my career or to continue doing something that simply didn’t resonate with me anymore. So, I decided to take a break and go to the Dubai Design Week. It was there, while I was sipping whiskey and reading the Architectural Digest magazine in the lounge of my hotel with the most magnificent view of the Dubai skyline, that the answer suddenly dawned on me. A new life was born - BAAL Design. I knew instantly that I had made the best decision of my life. It was a “eureka” moment which dictated everything that was to follow.
Q: Which designers/architects you find the most inspirational?
I seek inspiration not only from my colleagues but also from daily situations, movies, places, etc. When it comes to the ateliers that I follow, Yodezeen Architects have influenced me the most. I also really like the work Cheryl Leisen is doing with her IMG NYC staging company, and I have to mention Bjarke Ingels, whose workshops I had the opportunity to attend in Barcelona. They were the ones I’ve learned most from and the most transformational experiences of my life.
Q: Is it important to you that people understand your work?
It is not about people understanding my work, it’s more about them understanding my commitment and my dedication to every little piece in the puzzle of building a design brand. That’s why we plan to showcase more of “behind the scenes” moments where people actually get to see for themselves the whole process of designing and its complexity.
Q: How much did your cultural background inspire your current work?
Tremendously! I am so happy that I was influenced by different lifestyles in my home country which has helped me to understand and become familiar with our clients’ wants and needs.
Q: What do you aspire to achieve with your work?
I want my work to be meaningful. It already is, as we create beautiful homes for people, and it is a big thing. Someone trusts you with a space that is so important to them, where they are going to wake up every day for the next couple of years or so. I want to have a huge impact and to inspire people. I am making sure that I become the best I am capable of becoming at what I do.
Q: What did you want to become as a child?
I knew I was going to become a civil engineer or an architect from an early age. My late grandfather was a civil engineer, my uncle also studied architecture for a while before he switched to economics, and I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. All of my toys were mini bulldozers and cranes, and I used to build towers from VHS boxes, pretending I had my own building site. I guess I predicted it all somehow. (laughs)
Q: Favourite travel destination?
I like to discover new cities and countries, so my next travel destination is always my favourite destination, because I get so excited about visiting a new place. There are some places, such as Milan, Dubai and Paris which I can’t really call my favorite, but I know that I will have an amazing time every time I visit them.
Q: How have experiences of living in different European cities affected you?
They haven’t only affected me, they have shaped me and helped me to become who I am today. That is why I always advise young people to go abroad for at least one semester in order to gain some life experience, independence, broaden their horizons, meet new people, get to know different mindsets and lifestyles. I’ve had the opportunity to live in cities such as Barcelona, Paris and Florence, and needless to say, living in those cities has influenced me professionally and helped me to create my own style, mindset and lifestyle.
Q: If you would have to pick one city to live in, which would it be?
Definitely Barcelona, because the time I spent there was the most inspiring year of my life.
Q: How do you see the world changing after 2020?
I know things will never be the same again. We will never be the same. The way we live will never be the same. I believe that 2020 was a wake-up call, a huge frequency switch that was meant to happen in order for us to reset our collective consciousness button.
Q: Goals for 2021?
If I could even put them in one sentence I would say - to focus and keep on doing what I love. To continue on expanding, and to create even better spaces and enjoy even better projects.
INTERVIEW with Patricia Cabeza - very talented photographer and content creator
Hi there :)
Here comes another interview. I find it so interesting to learn more from the people around me. I love to hear their thoughts and understand the reasons behind their work.
Today I present to you, Patricia, such a talented and beautiful soul. Enjoy!
Q: Describe yourself in one word
A: Describing yourself is always tough, but I would say observant! I guess that *really* shows in my job, but I really enjoy just watching (in nature, in the city, people-watching in airports…).
Q: Favourite book?
A: This is a hard one! I’ve read quite impressing books lately, but when it comes to choosing a favorite, my mind always goes back to the series of books The Cemetery of Forgotten Books by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I love everything mystery and Zafón really was a master of the genre.
Q: Favourite food/drink?
A: Coffee for sure! It isn’t a secret that I love specialty coffee, especially when it comes in form of a flat white with oat milk! And food… that’s a hard one, but I think nothing compares to a good, sourdough bread with some olive oil and jamón ibérico (I’m Spanish, I can’t help it)
Q: What advice would you give to your younger self?
A: “Nothing lasts forever” and “trust the process”. Sometimes we’re too focused on how we’re feeling in that exact moment and seeing the bigger picture is hard, but you have to keep going!
Q: Where do you find inspiration for your photography?
A: My biggest inspiration is the little things. That first sip of coffee in the morning, the sunlight going through a glass of water on a sunny day, the texture of movement in water. Sometimes all it takes is slowing down to see it all.
Q: How did you get into photography?
A: I don’t think a lot of people know this, but I was a big pop-punk fan back in 2010. I loved watching all kinds of concert photography and I even found myself daydreaming about becoming one. So when I got my first camera in 2011 (I was 15!), I started a couple of music blogs so I could ask for press passes and shoot concerts! I still do it from time to time, the last one was Twenty One Pilots in Madrid in 2019 – a dream come true!
Q: Is it important to you that people understand your work?
A: When it comes to my photography, I want people to feel at home. Whatever that might be for them. I want them to feel inspired and at peace, there’s rarely a complicated concept behind it. I like it simple.
Q: How much did your cultural background inspire your current work?
A: I hadn’t realized this until I moved to Berlin, but it affects a lot! I grew up in Granada, Spain, and spent the summers in Almería. The combination of the rich history of Granada and its magnificent architecture with the contrast of desert and coast landscape that is Almería have really shaped my aesthetics.
Q: What do you aspire to achieve with your work?
A: Inspiring people & solving problems. If a day comes when I can’t achieve any of those, I will quit!
Q: How do you see the photography industry changing in the future?
A: I think it’s constantly changing and evolving. Since everyone can have access to a good camera and equipment nowadays, creativity and authenticity are key. We come across thousands of images per day, but only a few stick!
Q: Favourite travel destination?
A: They’re complete opposites: but New York City and Italy. The busy city life in NYC is thrilling, but there’s something about summers and Italy that make me fall in love every time I go back.
Q: Has your photographic style changed since you moved to Berlin? If yes, how?
A: Definitely! Since I came here I started shooting more and more analog photography and that has taken a toll on me, especially when it comes to choosing what to shoot and re-learning what I want to shoot in digital and what in analog.
Q: What do you miss from Spain the most?
A: This is a VERY easy one… the food and the weather! But mainly the food.
Q: How do you keep yourself busy during the lockdown?
A: I try to move my body at least once a day (I was running but since the cold came I limit myself to walks and at-home workouts), and I still force myself to work 9 to 5 so I can feel some structure. Not going to lie, but it’s difficult! Some days just resting is okay.
Q: Goals for 2021?
A: The main one is to finish my Graphic Design MBA and start a career in it! I’m quite excited for this journey. But I also really want to shoot more portraits and concept-driven shoots. It’s a exciting year ahead!
I hope you enjoyed this one! I certainly did :)
I wish you a lovely evening!
Love, Ena
INTERVIEW with Nadira Tania - content creator and social media manager
Welcome to another interview and the new web design :)
Today I will introduce to you Nadira, such a lovely person and an aesthetics queen. Be sure to check out her IG account here .
Q: Describe yourself in one sentence
A: ‘I’m a Leo sun, Libra moon, Leo rising.’ Just kidding! Hmm if I had to choose just one word to describe myself, then it would be ‘Eager’ - if you know me in real life, you may have noticed I’m a very curious person with multiple interests and really enthusiastic to learn new things.
Q: Favourite movie?
A: I’m a movie buff so this question is a very tough one. I usually try to break down my favorite movies by genre/actor/director just because it is so hard to pick one that is my favorite overall. But any movie by Jean-Luc Godard / Stanley Kubrick / Wes Anderson is always a good watch and really cinematic. (Well, I am not usually very indecisive but the one thing I am bad at choosing is my favorite movie/song/book, etc because I have so many favorites haha)
Q: Favourite museum/gallery?
A: Definitely the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark - beautiful art, architecture, landscape, culture, nature.. just wonderful!
Q: What advice would you give to your younger self?
A: If I could go back in time and give my younger self advice, I’d say ‘don’t put too much pressure on yourself’. It’s so hard for a perfectionist like me to even think about sucking, but I’m slowly coming to terms with that.
Q: Where do you find inspiration?
A: I honestly can be inspired by everything - art, movies, music, architecture, books, magazines, people on the street, places, the city I am in, artists, designers, and influential people. Traveling is also very important to me – it’s where I get most of my inspiration from.
Q: What attracted you to go with the minimalistic style?
A: There's something about buildings and modern architecture that I really love since I was a kid and it developed my sense of style and aesthetic. I wouldn’t say I am a minimalist because I own a lot of stuff but I prefer the modern aesthetic and minimalist design. I also hate clutter and bold colors, so I need my space to have that minimalist atmosphere to calm my mind.
Q: How did you start your food IG account?
A: The foodie in me is real haha! My family and friends would know how much I love eating out and discovering new places to eat. I created @berlinasianfood just because I didn't want to spam my main account with food-related but I didn't expect it to grow this much and it has already been 3 years. Pre-COVID, I really enjoy visiting restaurants and sharing my experiences but now that we are just staying at home, I am starting a new series “home-cooking” as it’s the perfect timing to try out some new recipes.
Q: Did your country or culture inspire your work?
A: Aesthetically no, but technically yes. Born and raised in Indonesia taught me to be humble, work hard, treat everyone with kindness, and lend a helping hand if you can. We believe that whatever you do will always come back to you and vice versa.
Q: Fashion brand you would like to work with/for?
A: The answer is Maison Margiela. Without a doubt.
Q: How do you see the world changing in the future regarding sustainability?
A: I think people are becoming more aware of sustainability and the positive impact it can have on this planet, many young people are so invested in trying to bring a positive change, especially in the way they live and shop. We definitely need to learn, educate and then take action ourselves, as we educate others - even doing small and simple good things consistently can have an impact to save the environment, especially the 5rs, sustainable living, eliminating plastic. Just start with super small things and build up from there, it will take a big effort to turn the tide and help heal the planet we all share.
Q: How do you see the fashion industry changing after 2020?
A: The fashion industry needs to become more sustainable in 2021. Sustainable fashion is not a trend, but the future because right now the fashion industry creates a ton of waste and many mainstream brands use child labor so we need to bring more attention to sustainable fashion and where our clothes come from, and most importantly, stop buying fast fashion. There is a more mindful way to shop for clothes: buy from sustainable and ethical brands, go with higher-end brands - it will cost more at purchase but also save you lots of money on cost per wear because they last longer! Or go thrifting - I feel like the second-hand clothing stores now play a greater role than ever as people become more aware of sustainability. Also, I decided a couple of years ago to stay away from short-lived trend pieces and focus more on timeless items for my wardrobe and home so that they could stay with me for a longer time.
Q: Famous person you would like to chat with? (dead or alive)
A: Just one? I almost can't decide lol. Maybe Dieter Rams? I like his principles and he has inspired a lot more people than you could imagine.
Q: How has living in Berlin changed you?
A: I love my homeland dearly, Indonesia is such a beautiful country and I love my people there but I just feel like Jakarta is not the right place for me to grow. It’s not like I am very ungrateful or something, but the routine just wasn’t for me and I think I got too spoiled living there (At home, we had a cook, a maid & a driver so I never had to worry about anything back then haha) I can remember, from the time I was a kid, my family and closest friends told me that I was and am unique, and I always wanted to explore new things - I remember asking my mom if I could study abroad in Paris after high school because I was very obsessed with fashion, French movies, art and culture (I still am tho). Luckily, my parents supported me and they told me I could study abroad after I finish my uni in Jakarta. Not long after, I left my hometown for Italy to pursue my Master’s studies and ended up working and living in Berlin after I graduated. I am thankful for what these past six years have taught me, everyone I’ve met and interacted with, and I learned and experienced so many things... there is one big life lesson I have learned and that is to be strong in tough situations. I’ve also learned to be more open-minded about the world around me, wiser, disciplined, independent, and that I do not need to depend on anyone for my own happiness.
Q: How do you keep yourself busy during the lockdown?
A: I like to keep myself organized and in control, so I assign a few things to myself each day that I know I can achieve in one day - this really helps keep me centered, and focused. I usually get up early so I have more time to do a 30-min workout, AM skincare routine, and make myself a hot turmeric ginger tea before starting the day.. I am mostly in back-to-back virtual meetings, brainstorming, scheduling content, and working on productions for shoots, and I always put fresh flowers on my desk, matcha latte, and light a scented candle to make my space feel positive and calm. I also find getting dressed very important, even if we are just going to the supermarket or walk around the hood, and at the end of the day, I’ll turn my laptop off, disable all notifications from my phone, make a delicious dinner, watch movies or read books.
Q: Goals for 2021?
A: My goal for 2021 is to remain present.. not rushing to the future but PRESENT. Not gonna lie, this global pandemic makes me slightly nervous but I remind myself to stay positive, follow my passion, do the work, keep going without getting distracted by the rest of the world, and it will pay off in the end.
photo from: @nadirataniaa
I hope you like this one! I definitely enjoyed reading this one!
Love, Ena
How to create interesting content at home?
Hey again!
So this entire day has started very weirdly for me, low energy, not much motivation, and then I find out that my Photoshop got deinstalled mysteriously. Then I actually didn’t know what day it is. And so on and so on. So here I am writing this post. Luckily I actually wrote the basis of this post few days ago when I was a bit more sane than today haha.
Pretty much the entire Europe is facing extended lockdowns. We truly believed that by now we will be able to get back to our routines and work the way it was in the summer at least. Now we have to figure out how to keep creating content, and at home. The weather is also pretty bad so one more reason why photographing at home makes much more sense.
So let’s start!
What is essential for photography no matter where you are is LIGHT. Technically, without light, there would be no photography. So firstly, find the corner of your room or apartment that has the most light. In case you have artificial lights, or a good house lamp, you can definitely use that as well.
I personally prefer to use natural light, but in winter days, especially in Berlin, getting enough light is nearly impossible. If it is, then it’s also gone very quickly.
Depending on what you want to create, you will style your set. When styling the set you can use everything that you can find in your house, mugs, plates, vases, flowers, etc.. most of us like to gather all kinds of coasters, candles, small plates for house decoration, and these come in very handy in these situations. If you struggle to find inspiration of how to place your props, check Pinterest and IG. This does not mean do exactly what the other person did, it just means to see how it can be done, what goes well together etc.
Once your set is done, place the pieces and start photographing. Sometimes you will need to try a lot, change the set 10 times until you achieve what you had in mind. Other times, you will place the props in 2min, take photos for 3 and you will have what you wanted in 5min. In case you are not managing to achieve your goal, please don’t let this discourage you. It takes time to understand how the props work together, and the more you try the better you will get. Also, it might not be your day, so sleep on it and come back tomorrow.
What is the key here is to be creative. You don’t have a background? Use your skirt, use your bedsheet, use your tablecloth.. you need more harsh light for some details? take your phone and use the flashlight.. just think of the ways to use what you have to achieve what you want.
I personally prefer to work with someone else when it comes to set design because I am very impatient with this. I can take photos of one product for hours, but when it comes to placing the props, I give up after 2 minutes hahah. So if you have a friend that is better in this, you can work together, just like I do :)
One tip for achieving your goal is to be prepared. Create a mood board, plan the session, write a checklist.. all these preparations will help you to spend less time on the content creation.
However, your end results might not even look like anything close to your mood board, and that is totally fine. You might have some crazy idea when you take the camera, let your brain do its thing.
Now is the time to look at what you’ve done, choose your favs, edit them and there you go, job done! :)
styling for these photos was done by my friend Helga :)
IG: www.instagram.com/_edottir/ | website: edottir.com
How I got into photography :)
Hello again! :)
Today I will talk to you about something personal. My start. Why I chose to do photography, how I got into it, what keeps me going, and how is this one of the the first things in my life that I didn’t give up on haha.
As some of you might know, before I got into Photography University in Berlin, I studied Architecture back in Belgrade. I wanted to study Interior Design since I was quite young, I always loved interiors. My plan was to move to Milano after high school and start studying there, but as plans never happen as they were planned haha, this also didn’t happen. Now, I do think it was a good thing. I was way too young to move to a foreign country. Since studying interior design wasn’t really possible in Belgrade at the time, at least not in the way it was in Milano. I guess it’s still not possible to have similar interior design studies as the ones on Politecnico di Milano. So then at the beginning of my last year in high school I decided to go to architecture, and then do the masters in interior design. Well, obviously, this plan also didn’t happen ahaha. I had some ideas to do PhD in airplane interior design hahah.
Anyway, in my first semester I was really into architecture, but not really into 2 specific courses, that are kind of the base of architecture. By the end of the first semester I knew this is not something I want to do in life. I loooove architecture, I still read about it, I still have good knowledge on the subject. And to be honest, whenever I talk to my friend Andrea, who is an architect, about some projects or architectural topics, I always ask myself if I made the right decision. But then I remember how I only like the idea of me being an architect, and not really the work.
However, I have already had my DSLR camera at the time (got it for my 18th bday to take nice holiday pics hahah, little did I know). I decided to start taking my camera with me to uni and to take photos of people, of the architectural models we were building, of details, of whatever I found interesting. I was also bringing my camera on dog-walks with my mom. I was photographing from our kitchen window (we lived on the 17th floor at the time, right next to the river, with an amazing view, will insert a photo). I was taking photos of EVERYTHING. I didn’t know much about anything, was still using my camera on manual setting haha. I guess I got quite the feeling of composition and details while studying architecture and having a 1 year long preparation for the uni. I was photographing every day, and never even thought that this might be my path, that this might be something I am supposed to do. Then one day, a friend that I found as one of the most artistic people I knew at the time, said something about how I should go and study photography. How I am clearly not happy in architecture uni, and how photography is my path. She said my photographs were really good. Of course, I’ve never thought my work was really good, even when I got good grades and good feedback, okay to be honest I still don’t think my work is too special haha. I always assume that anyone can do what I do, but then when I say this people look at me as if I am crazy and well.. haha
So after she mentioned this, I started researching photography schools or courses. Again, studying photography in Belgrade doesn’t exist the way I studied in Berlin. The only thing I found that I was really interested in was a 3 months long course. And I took it. What I did not expect was the very good feedback I got from our professor. The more time I spent learning about photography the more I liked it. Then one of the girls that was in the course became one of my closest friends, and we started taking photographs around the city almost every day. We were volunteering for sooo many events, organizations. I kind of stopped going to uni regularly at the time and she was taking a break so we had lots of time. For the next year I managed to build a portfolio with a very nice variety of the photographs. Even when I look at it now, I still think those photos were really strong. Of course now I see some details that I would fix that I didn’t see then, but overall, for someone who was super new to this photo game, they were strong.
Less then a year after I finished the course, I started researching for universities abroad. Milano, London and Berlin. From these three Berlin maybe made the least sense. I speak Italian and I already had friends in Milano. I knew Italian culture, probably better than my own, so blending in would not be a problem. Also, some people say I look Italian so yeah that is great hahah. The only problem was, I couldn’t find the right course. London, well, I’ve been obsessed with London and England since I was 3 years old (although I did think that London was the capital of USA, I was 3,4 okay? hahah) London is definitely the most expensive of these three, getting the visa for UK would be a big question mark, and London would be a bit too much for me at the time. London is still a bit too much for me even now. I would definitely love to live there at some point, but maybe when I’m older. And then Berlin.. I had some friends here. It is the city of art, photography, filmography, design, music. It is the city that is the most similar to Belgrade (some very optimistic people love to say that Belgrade is the new Berlin, it is not really). It is the most “chilled” city from these three. So there it was, I found a uni, found a course, went to an open day, cried in the bathroom because I finally felt like I belong here, then cried because I thought I would never get in (also I’m not the person that cries, so for me to express these kind of emotions where someone could potentially see me was a sign). And then I applied and then I had an interview and then I got in.
And that is the story how I got here :)
This blog post is already really long, so the rest of the story, of how I got to the point where I am now, will come in a few days. So keep checking for part 2.
Best,
Ena
/ photo on the cover by: Ana Ćirilović; Belgrade, 2015
INTERVIEW with Rubab Paracha - multi skilled woman, an architect, a designer, artist, project manager
Hello everyone!
The first interview of the year is here! And I am so happy to present you this person, she is such a multi skilled creative woman, very inspirational. Above all, a very kind human being!
Hope you like this interview, in my opinion, it’s a very interesting one :)
Q: What word would you use to describe yourself?
A: Resilient
Q: Favourite song?
A: American Baby - Dave Matthews band
Q: Favourite book?
A: I have multiple, but the book that changed my life is “To Kill a Mocking Bird” and currently i’m loving and learning from "Dare to Lead" by Brene Brown
Q: What advice would you give to your younger self?
A: You don’t need all those awards to prove your worth
Q: What architects do you find most inspirational?
A: The architects/designers i find most inspirational (not in any order):
1. Christoph Niemann (illustrator)
2. Templo Studio UK (graphic design)
3. Tadao Ando (architect)
4. Neri Oxman (designer)
Q: Tell me something about your last work?
A: My last project is a work-in-progress called “Solair Aesthetics" building my own design brand, philosophy and communicating it with those who love good design, aesthetics and human centered experiences.
Q: Did your country or culture inspire your work?
A: Yes, I was born and brought up in Pakistan, I speak 3 very different languages and come from a rich cultural background. It not only gives me a solid work ethic but allows me to bring a unique human perspective to my projects which are either in German or international context. The mixed background helps me a lot when designing user experiences and unique customer journeys and looking at things from varied perspectives.
Q: What would you like to achieve with your work?
A: I think being a designer and mentor, my first and foremost aim is to show the importance and positive effects of good design because it can change your life, well-being and your business for the better. I also want my efforts as a leader to promote the importance of being human at the workplace and improve work environments which will inevitably result in more innovative and creative projects.
Q: Is it important to you that people understand your work?
A: I think I want people to interact with my work rather than just see it. This is something I learnt from my art background, that I express myself and allow people to make their own interpretations when they engage with it - but it must stir something within them only then is my work effective.
Q: Tell me a bit more about what inspired you to study architecture?
A: I studied architecture and still love this field but after a few years of professional experience and teaching I diversified towards multi-disciplinary design (bringing different fields together). I firmly believe that one cannot design in a bubble and getting input from different fields is crucial to problem solving. I’m a visual person therefore the design field allows me to communicate and express creativity. My background in architecture gives me a unique edge in the field of digital design (UX/CX) because I can transfer the knowledge effectively and test the design approaches effectively which wasn’t possible in architecture.
Q: How do you see the world changing in the future regarding sustainability?
A: Given the shift that we all experienced in 2020, I think more people are now willing to challenge the status quo whether it is about transport, offices/work spaces and how we design products and the effect it has on your environment. This sudden stop gave us all a moment to think, that things can change from “this is how we always did it” to “how can we make this work differently and better”. I was fortunate to mentor some startups in 2020 and I saw so many business ideas talking about sustainability, this was really inspiring for me.
Q: How do you see the industry changing after 2020?
A: I think the buzz word of the year is “digital transformation” and I think many companies who have long considered this step unnecessary are finally forced to change their ways , especially in Germany (Hallelujah). I’m hoping for better systems, optimised processes and more human centered approaches in the design field.
Q: How did this year and the global pandemic affect your work?
A: Previously,I did a lot of work in service design and in-person experiences(UX/CX), while the digital touch-points still work very well, the digital translation of in-person events needs more work. e.g. At the moment in the automotive industry there are 1-to-1 translations of car display shows in a AR setting. However, moving forward we need to find a better strategy of how to create immersive digital experiences which are not a replication of in-person events. It made me research more and question the way we currently do things and how we can transform that for better user engagement and improve the quality of the experience..
Q: How do you keep yourself busy during the lockdown?
A: During the lockdown I dedicated a lot of time towards my health and well-being. I was a workaholic who was forced to slow down; I meditated daily, tended to my herb garden, spent a substantial time in nature and created a series of artworks that brings together my love for books, plants and illustration.
Q: Goals for the next year?
A: If there is anything 2020 taught me, is to stop over-planning and setting strict goals. I’ve shifted to a more process and intention oriented approach. This does not mean I don’t have aims, I just allow things to move more fluidly and I am trying to embrace the serendipity mindset.
Feel free to write your thoughts in the comments!
I will see you soon with a new topic and more interviews.
Have a great end of the week.
Ena <3
Reflecting on 2020 and setting goals for 2021
Hello everyone! Welcome back! :)
First of all Happy New Year!
I hope you all had amazing holidays and managed to get some time for yourselves to recharge for the new year.
This post will be a small reflection on the 2020, that was despite all difficulties also a wake up call, and setting goals for 2021.
I usually always set some goals for the upcoming year, but then very soon forget about them. I think it’s because I don’t set clear goals and then I somehow get lost in what should be done and how it should be done. This time I would like to also reflect on the year that is behind me and then according to this, set my goals for the next one.
Firstly, I am very grateful for every opportunity I had and for all of the people that I got to work with. I must say that I couldn’t even imagine having some of these chances, and/or being chosen to work on particular projects. Also having clients that come back and are happy with the way we work together is every freelancer’s dream.
My year started with having lots of goals but not so clear ones. I was still lost wether I should still try to apply for some full time jobs (as a photographer, those positions don’t really exist haha) or I should gather the courage and start swimming in the freelancer pond. Then I started to get new projects that required me to have an option to write invoices and the decision has been made.
What no one, me included, expected was the lockdown and global pandemic. I received my papers for freelance job when the lockdown in Germany has already begun. No one knew how long it will last, and oh well, we still don’t know. At the time I was once again, lost. How should I proceed? What should I do? Should I stay in Berlin or go home? Lots of decisions and questions. So I decided to just keep going and try to live in the moment. I stayed in Berlin, didn’t leave Germany the whole year, haven’t seen my family and baby dog for a year now. I had to move 3 times (I’m a true Berliner now haha). Beside all of that, I am still dealing with chronic health issues.
Now all this looks dark, but it’s not really. Everything that has happened made me realise how grateful I am for what I have, for the choices I have the possibility to make, the options I have and the support from my family and friends. 2020 was some sort of a wake-up call for me. I’ve been living for the past 2 or 3 years constantly being lost and not sure of what I’m doing and what I should be doing. And now I was finally forced to stop for a second and let my brain relax, at first, and then come up with proper ideas and plans. I’ve managed to re-think my business and business ideas. To make a proper schedule and plan and put it all on paper and start working towards my goals step by step. Also, becoming a freelancer was definitely the best choice I’ve made.
Overall, this year has been a complete rollercoaster but I can say I got out of it stronger than I got on it. It was a weird adventure.
Now I will not say much about the upcoming events and all of the goals, wouldn’t want to spoil the fun right away but I will mention a few.
After getting some experience with teaching both live and online, I’ve realised that I really enjoy teaching and helping people out using the knowledge I have. All this made me think if I could somehow bring this to a much bigger scale, and that’s how the thought of opening my own photography school came to my mind. Now this is not as easy as I thought at the beginning, but I am working towards it every day. It would be a dream to get the opportunity to teach and help people get their photo results by learning from me. What keeps me going is also the fact that I’ve received great feedback about my previous teaching, and seeing people happy afterwards is an amazing feeling!
There are a few goals not related to photography that have been in the making for the last few months, this project is going to be really big, and when the time comes I will talk about it more!
Feel free to check some of the moments from last year here.
See you soon with more photography related topics!
New interviews coming soon as well!
Have a great week everyone!
My PHOTO-BOOK collection
Hello everyone! :)
I have been a bit away lately due some health issues but now I’m back to talk to you about my photo-book collection :)
I would be lying if I would say that I have always been so passionate about books. I definitely wasn’t a kid that loved to read, I preferred playing, drawing, painting, or doing any kind of arts and crafts with my hands.
My passion for books started around the time I got into university. I would have to read something that I was actually interested in, and I also realized that I can actually choose books that are not on the school-list and read them in my spare time haha, it took me a while.
While studying architecture I was mainly buying books related to design and architecture, but when I got into photography university that’s when I started buying photo-books and books about photography.
In this post I will show you some of my favourite photo-books.
Mary Ellen Mark on the Portrait and the Moment
This is definitely my favourite photo-book. I found this book in the uni library while researching for my BA thesis and I just had to buy my own copy. As you can see, the little page markers are there too. This book is an amazing mixture of both photographs and text. Reading and looking through this book really made me think about the portraiture in a different way.
Peter Lindbergh A Different Vision on Fashion Photography
For those who are into photography, there is no need to introduce this book and this photographer. One of the best photographers ever existed on this planet. His work is so captivating and out of this world. This book is a piece of art!
Edward Weston
Portraiture and stills work well together, and this book shows this. I remember the day I got this book, and couldn’t stop looking through. This book is full of amazing photographs. This is the book I pick up when I feel like I am lacking inspiration for my own work, and the answer is always there.
Elliott Erwitt DOGS
Well.. haha.. everyone that knows me, can only imagine how much I love this book. This was my graduation present from my lovely friend Ana, and it was the best present I could’ve gotten. Love love love this book!
Martin Parr The Last Resort
I would say it’s not a secret that I am not really into colours haha. When it comes to photography as well, BUT, Martin Parr’s work is a perfect way of using the colour to enhance and exaggerate the already absurd situations. I am so glad I had a chance to listen to him during European Month of Photography in Berlin, 2018.
I hope you enjoyed a little post about some of my favourite photo books. There are for sure more, and lots of them on the wish-list as well.
Have a great end of this weekend!
Ena
INTERVIEW with Allegra Parlavecchio - Sicilian illustrator/designer
Hello again :)
Another Wednesday, another interview! Today I am so so excited to present to you one of my best friends, and one of the most talented people I know - Allegra.
Allegra is a Berlin based illustrator/designer, originally from Sicily. The combination of these very different cultures did leave a mark on her work and keep reading to find out how :)
Q: Describe yourself using only one word?
A: Content
Q: Favourite movie?
A: Only one? Nothing fancy but I love a good feel-good movie, “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “The Terminal” will always be at the top of my list.
Q: Favourite colour?
A: Dark blue
Q: What did inspire you to become an illustrator/graphic designer?
A: I’ve always loved colours and I always loved drawing (cliché?) so there was never a “lightbulb over my head” moment where I suddenly knew what I wanted my life to be. It was a long, slow and boring process - which is still happening!
Q: What graphic designers do you find most inspirational?
A: Not a graphic designer, but Mark Conlan was the very first illustrator who ever truly inspired me
Q: How does your dream client look like?
A: A very open-minded, fun, and daring client. With a massive budget.
Q: Did your country or culture inspire your work?
A: Absolutely. I didn’t understand how much until I moved to Berlin and saw how different my style was from everything that surrounded me. I grew up in Sicily, immersed in the most vibrant colours - the coastal sea, the ice-creams, the umbrellas at the beach, the handmade ceramics, everything there is at its highest saturation.
Q: Does your fashion background have any impact on your nowadays work?
A: Oh yes! I feel like my previous fashion studies really helped me recognise trends easily (if I follow them or not, that’s another story) and taught me how important is the quality of the work you produce.
Q: Is it important to you that people understand your work?
A: Not really? I don’t mind when people have different interpretations of my work. I sometimes don’t really have a clear vision myself of what the artwork represents until someone points their thoughts out and there I see it!
Q: Tell me a bit more about your characters in your illustrations?
A: My characters are more than often inspired by the little struggles and the little joys of women’s everyday life. The feeling of the first sip of tea in the morning, a baby leaf on the plant you forgot to water, breaking the mug you just bought, a text from a friend, the anxiety of a Sunday night, a walk in the park, a food that reminds you of your childhood. I’d like for my work to simply be relatable to who sees it.
Q: How do you see the world changing in the future regarding sustainability?
A: I don’t really know where the world is concretely going right now - there’s a lot of talks and some action, I’d just love to see more action. I truly appreciate how the overall public awareness is growing but I still find problematic how the focus is still on the individual when it should be on bigger corporations and politicians (ex. stop using straws is great but stop producing it them is better).
Q: How do you see the industry changing after 2020?
A: I just hope we’ll all take advantage of what 2020 has taught us: more compassion, more collaboration, and more flexibility.
Q: How did this year and the global pandemic affect your work?
A: Weirdly enough, it has affected it in a positive way. This was the year I finally had the time to really focus on client works and expand my online presence.
Working from home has some lovely pros but some big fat cons that not always safeguard mental health, I’ll give you that.
Q: How do you keep yourself busy during the lockdown?
A: I’m a homebody by nature - I never truly feel like I “have” to keep myself busy. I’m content with a simple and slow home life but whenever I feel the itch for more, I just pick up my pen and draw or miserably fail at baking cookies.
Q: Goals for the next year?
A: To hopefully be able to open my own shop. To really give it time and creativity and make something I can be proud of!
I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as I did.
See you soon with more interesting people sharing their story with you :)
INTERVIEW with Alina Nikolaenko - Russian born, Paris based fashion designer
Hello again :)
This week I would like to introduce to you, Russian born, Paris based womenswear and print designer, Alina.
She has studies in some of the most prestigious schools in Europe, and it was really interesting to hear some of her thoughts, I hope you will like it too.
Q: How would you describe yourself in one sentence?
A: Typical sagittarius.
Q: Favourite movie?
A: ‘The King’s Speech’
Q: Favourite song?
A: Pas de deux from 'The Nutcracker’ ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Q: Favourite museum?
A: Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Q: What was the thing that has inspired you to go into fashion?
A: Actually there is no specific thing that inspired me to go into fashion. My interest came gradually, as well as the decision to study fashion.
I was on the first year of my bachelor in graphic design at Saint Petersburg State University, when I started to pay attention to what people on the streets were wearing. I started to draw them, combining their looks, adding details, etc. Two of my course mates saw me doing this and asked why wouldn’t I do fashion. It was the first time I considered changing my specialisation. Some time after I chose Central Saint Martins as a school I wanted to go to (because I fell in love with works of Alexander McQueen) and that’s when my fashion journey started.
Q: Famous person you would like to have a chat with? (dead or alive)
A: Karl Lagerfeld.
Q: Did your country or culture inspire your work?
A: Yes, but not all the time. I did some projects during my studies at CSM, but now I find them quite costume-like and not modern. I want to do a project based on Russia which will be as less ‘folk’ as possible.
Q: Where do you see women in fashion in the future?
A: I think, as right now, everywhere: as CEOs or creative directors, in studios, ateliers, in offices, shops and in the manufactories.
Q: Tell me a little bit about your last collection? What is the message behind it?
A: My last collection was a part of master's degree at Institut Français de la Mode, Paris. It is called ‘Hāfu’. This word means ‘half’ and is used in Japanese to refer to somebody who is biracial with half Japanese ethnic origin.
In my work I like to mix different sources of inspiration, usually related somehow to my personality, tastes or past. That is why in this collection I researched my dream country, Japan, London’s fashion during the Swinging Sixties (because I spent 4 years in this city) as well as street art and typography (reference to my graphic design past).
I think I can say that my clothes are telling stories about me, my experience, my feelings and dreams.
Q: What do you wish to change in the fashion industry?
A: I really want fashion to be more about creativity and less about finance. I don’t like when people do commercial brands just to earn money. Maybe it is coming from my British education, where idea and concept were on the first place, while wearability, cost of production and other pragmatic aspects of fashion were not really considered.
I don’t say that we have to forget about our customer, not at all, as I believe that fashion is design and not art. I just want to see more personality in clothes, which is coming from an idea from my point of view.
Q: Which brand would you like to work for/with?
A: Chanel and Alexander McQueen.
I always wanted to work in Chanel because I love and respect Karl Lagerfeld, and also I am fascinated by story and personality of Gabrielle Chanel. I like the elegance and purity of their designs.
Alexander McQueen for me is the brand of unlimited creativity and fantasy, where woman is not just a hanger, she turns into a beautiful and powerful creature.
Currently I work at Saint Laurent, that I would never expect. I really enjoy being in this place and absorbing the heritage of the brand together with its perception of the woman and view on her wardrobe.
Q: How do you see the fashion world changing in the future regarding sustainability?
A: I hope that one day sustainability will become an every-day part of fashion and will stop being a trendy, must-put into a description of a brand, word.
Q: How do you see the fashion industry changing after 2020?
A: I don’t think it’s going to change dramatically.
As my dad says, life goes on a spiral, so one day we will be back to normal.
Q: Goals for the next year?
A: Learn Chinese, finish new personal collection, get promoted at work, travel to Japan and also turn into life one idea I have since a long time — to start consulting/teaching fashion students in Russia. I want to share my experience and knowledges with people who cannot afford studying in London or Paris.
Q: What advice would you give to your younger self?
A: Spend less time with toxic people and use it for exploring something new.
I hope you enjoyed this interview, and stay tuned for more! :)
INTERVIEW with Katarina Matijević - Parisian based fashion designer
Hi everyone!
I am so glad to introduce the new part of the blog: Interviews. Last year, I did and interview with Katarina, and now I would love to continue with this section. So it only seemed right to interview her again as the first one this year. We both got to the conclusion that it’s very interesting to see how the answers changed, and a year can change a person :)
I hope you enjoy this one, and if you have missed the one from last year, here is the link for you:
Q: Last year you described yourself as: “balance of constancy and change.” Would you still describe yourself in the same way or has something changed?
A: Still changing, still trying to balance it out with some everyday routine. In a way, this year has been full of changes, but one thing remained constant for me - work.
Q: Favourite book?
A: “The Trial” by Kafka
Q: Favourite colour?
A: Navy
Q: Favourite city?
A: I guess it’s still New York, even if I would never choose to live there for a longer period of time. I feel like when the city is constantly changing, you stay the same. You go round and about the same things. But if the city is the same all the time, you have this extremely deep urge to change.
Q: What did you want to be when you were a child?
A: Being a singer stuck with me the most. Do laugh.
Q: Famous person you would like to have a chat with? (dead or alive)
A: Albert Elbaz and Slavimir Stojanović Futro.
Q: Did your country or culture inspire your work?
A: Aesthetically - no. But the culture may have affected my approach to work.
“To make something out of nothing” as one of my professors in Serbia used to say.
Q: How has living in Paris changed you?
A: I started to appreciate time more. Mine and others’. And also the time I get to spend with my friends. It made me more aware of the “separated worlds” everyone lives in. Especially if you compare Serbian culture to French. In other words - it made me feel more alienated.
Q: Is it important to you that people understand your work?
A: It is of high importance how you communicate your work. It’s not enough to show something if it doesn’t come with a strong background story to it. After all, fashion is not explicitly Art, it is a way of communicating with people in the industry, but also with the audience.
Q: What do you wish to change in the fashion industry?
A: The way of working and treating young people from the creative industry. I consider sustainability to be a part of this problem and a solution. It will make people slow down, analyse and re-group. The fashion community needs to wake up and realise that this is not working anymore. Not for the planet, environment, nor for the customers mentality. It will crash one day I am looking forward to it. On that day I hope everyone will finally realize that we are all in this together and that we need to work together for a brighter tomorrow. In a better looking scenario it would happen before the big crash. But knowing society and history, things need to go very south before they head north.
Q: How do you see the fashion world changing in the future regarding sustainability?
A: Sustainability is a word everyone is using nowadays and when talking about it they are referring to just one part of it that fits their needs or needs of their brand. This word is already overused and it has quickly lost its meaning. We need to find a meaning to it again and incorporate it into the process of making, delivering and communicating a collection. It has to be one word that has one meaning and one process. Today, everyone is into sustainability, but every brand for themselves, doing it their own way - trying to find the best balance between the input and output. Between what they invest and what they earn at the end of the day. Fashion is still a business more than art - I understand people need to earn money, but I also understand that people are very greedy when it comes to money. If they can earn more, they will produce more, therefore they will sell more because the mentality of todays customer is to buy more. Do we really need that kind of money? To put greed before well being of the planet and ourselves? I don’t think it is necessary nor that it ever was. We need to go back to the «old-school» way of making things which will essentially offer more time to do research and finding the good way of being sustainable. Slow fashion will make people appreciate the product itself, its value and quality more. We see small brands making the effort, why can’t the big brands (who produce, earn and pollute the most) quit their old habits?
People, it’s just cigarettes.. You replace the smoke with water. Although, you will need some will.
Q: How do you see the fashion industry changing after 2020?
A: Honestly, I don’t see it changing that much. Fashion industry is stubborn as hell. The fashion shows kept going in September this year, in the middle of a global pandemic. I guess this pandemic wasn’t THE big crash I was hoping for. But if it does change - I hope the answer to this question lays in my previous answer - slow fashion.
Q: How did this year and the global pandemic affect your work?
A: Except for being unable to go to the studio - it didn’t change that much.
The process of working stayed the same and everyone just tried to keep up with the usual rhythm.
Q: How do you keep yourself busy during the lockdown?
A: Currently we are working from the studio, so I am able to go out for work and exercise.
I do yoga almost every morning and in my free time I try to run and draw as much as possible.
Q: Goals for the next year?
A: I’m not the type of person who sets goals that follow yearly calendar. I like knowing what I want and working towards it. Things usually tend to come in their own time. That being said, I would like to continue working and learning at Chloé. I consider myself very lucky to work with people who are motivated to pass their knowledge to new people and include them in the process from A to Z. On a more personal note, I would like to feel «settled down» with work and just life.. in one place.
With this we are finishing this interview and I will highly recommend to visit Katarina’s pages to see more of her work:
https://www.notjustalabel.com/tvvvin?
https://www.instagram.com/tvvvin/
I hope you liked it, and see you soon :)
Ena <3
Why did I decide to go and study Photography in University?
Hello again, hope you’re all good :)
As I said in my last post, I do really want to come here and write more often. I definitely have lots of topics on my mind.
Today’s topic is why I decided to go to uni and study photography instead of just taking a course. So I’ll start with a small background. I started studying Architecture back in my home town in 2013. I was so sure this is what I want to do, even though deep down in my soul I knew I shouldn’t. I got my first DSLR camera (semi-professional but definitely more than good enough for the start) for my 18th birthday because “I wanted to have cool pics from my holidays”…. little did I know hahah. Somewhere around the age of 19, while studying Architecture I picked up my camera to take photos of architectural models for uni. After I brought them to class a few people started noticing them and saying I should think about going further with this. At that time, I didn’t even think that this could be a career, definitely not my career. As the time was passing I started to be interested more in photography than architecture so I got into a 3 months course where I finally learned how to properly use my camera. For the next year my friend and I were volunteering for theatres, events etc. When we were not covering events or shows, we were walking around the city and photographing. Or photographing each other. All of this brought me to Berlin, where in 2016 I started studying photography. And why did I decide to do that?
During all this time I learned how to use my camera, I tried out different things, different genres but I wanted to know more and do more. I wanted my work to have some meaning and quality. After researching and talking to people I decided that for me this would be a good move. And I don’t regret it. During university I got the chance to dig deeper into my brain and my work. I got the chance to learn from people with a lot of knowledge. I got the chance to actually study this and not just learn about it. We had to write papers and then the thesis, and all this I wouldn’t have the chance to do if I didn’t start university.
For me personally, I loved our theory classes where we had to read and write. It gave me more sense of what photography is all about. I definitely got a much broader thinking. Whenever I am doing my personal projects, I want them to tell a story, I want them to have a deeper meaning, not just pretty pictures, I want my projects to communicate with the audience, to evoke emotions. I’m not saying you need university to come to this conclusion, you could read on your own, but having the possibility to discuss with professionals, with your classmates, to hear other people’s opinions, to be taught by the professors, is definitely something I could never achieve without uni. Since I was a child, having education was always top priority in my family, and well even if I didn’t really like it while I was a kid, I definitely started to love it when I grew up. For me education is definitely on the top of my priority list, and university education is definitely on a different level comparing to a 3 months course, well it also lasts 3.5 years.
You also get the chance to go deeper in each genre of photography, and choose your own path. Some will go into fashion some into documentary. And some will go and learn both and decide later. But having the chance to have a semester working on one genre is an amazing opportunity.
On the other hand, in my university, we had the chance to take some classes from different courses. I took lots of classes from the Communication Design course. Being in university means you will meet lots of people like you, and you will grow together. Will you separate at the end? Probably. But some will stay, and for me those friendships are very strong. Most of my closest friends I’ve met here in Berlin in my university. Being in this field of art and design you want to have people like you in your surrounding. Your IT or Business friends will rarely understand your life path, they are just being prepared for something else.
For those that are not planing to have photography as their career, there are some great courses out there where you can learn a lot. Pre announcement here, I am currently working on my own courses, not only webinars, but courses. :)
Again, I am not saying that everyone has to go into university in order to become a photographer, but did it bring me value? Most certainly it did!
I think I have covered most of my thoughts on this topic, if you have any questions, feel free to ask :)
What are you actually paying when hiring a photographer?
Hello everyone :)
I have been quite busy with some personal happenings lately but I definitely want to try to be more consistent with writing. I already have a list of some topics that I would like to cover in the future :)
So today’s topic is about pricing. I have already talked about it a bit in Photography business guidelines, but I would like to dedicate this post fully to this topic. So let’s start :)
I have been struggling with setting my prices and my pricing system for so long. Little part of this struggle was simply because I didn’t believe in myself and my work enough. I finally found my way and I will share it with you. Just before starting this topic I want to say that you as a photographer have to figure out how much you value your time and work, and you have to believe in that. You also have to be comfortable with the prices you set.
Since I have became a freelancer, I have changed my pricing system a few times, and the one that I have recently fully embraced is the one I will share here with you. So before we start this pricing journey, think about what are all of the things that your final price has to include and how much you have already invested? The price that the client which is hiring you is paying has to cover your time, knowledge, experience, practical work, post production, equipment; if you are a freelancer, then add rent, bills, food, life, savings, insurances etc..
In my opinion photographers are often underrated and clients that are hiring them are very often not really happy to pay. So after you thought of all of these things, now you should check your environment and see how your colleagues around you are charging for their services (this is more just to have some idea). This is important if you are not sure if you should charge 50e or 250e per hour, and let’s say that getting 250e per hour as a junior photographer in Berlin, is less possible.
So let’s get to the pricing system that you can use to set up your own final fee :)
hourly rate for photo session
hourly rate for post production
hourly rate for your equipment
licence
I will now go deeper in to each of the segments and explain what they mean. Firstly, hourly rate for photo session means your fee per hour for coming to the location and doing the photo session. Depending on your knowledge and experience your rate will be higher or lower.
Your hourly rate for post production will usually be different (and lower) than the hourly rate for photo session. This is the fee that your client will pay for you to retouch the chosen photographs. In case you are hiring an external retoucher, your client should pay for those costs.
I think the first two were quite clear, and that the next two need a bit more explanation. So when you see the hourly rate for the equipment, this is something that doesn’t necessarily have to be stated separately, you can include this in the hourly rate of photo session if your equipment is not changing much from a session to a session. In case you use completely different equipment, and you have a lot of it, it is very useful to state it in the price list. This hourly rate of equipment basically means that your client is paying an hourly fee for the equipment that you will use during the photo session. The equipment means your camera, lenses, lights, tripods, laptop, even the programs that you have to pay for, and so on. In case you need to rent some specific equipment that you don’t have, the client should cover these costs.
The last section is licence, this means that you will give a specific permission to your client in which way they are allowed to use the photographs. Most common limitations are medium (meaning social media, web page, printed magazine etc), time (meaning for how long the client is allowed to use the photographs), and location (sometimes photographers will limit the client to a geographical location, for example: the client is only allowed to use these photographs for their printed magazine in Germany). I personally never use the location limitation, and the most common one I use is medium because giving permission for digital usage and print is different.
Now that I have explained the system, you hopefully got some more idea of how you could charge your clients, but you might still be lost.. so let’s go a bit more in detail. I will focus on the first section here, which is your hourly rate for photo session. This rate means that the client is paying the fee for your time that you spend working for them, but how to calculate this fee? what does it depend on? what should be included?
In my opinion, this fee should cover the knowledge you have, the experience, and of course your practical work. As a photographer with a Bachelor Degree in Photography and 6 years of experience, I believe that I can charge a certain fee for my work that I feel comfortable with. I’m not saying that someone with a BA in Photography will necessarily do a better job, but the chances that this person has a much broader knowledge are a lot higher. Should you go to university, to be a great photographer, or not, is a topic on its own and I will cover it soon and share with you my experience and why I made a decision to quit studying Architecture and start studying Photography.
But let’s get back to photography fees.. another important point here is that most of the photographers are freelancers, this is just how our world currently works. This means that a photographer has to earn for all of the life expenses, nothing is covered by anyone else but the photographer. Health insurance for freelancers are very often higher than for the full-time employees, also in this case the photographer pays this fee fully and not just part of it.
The last but not least point I would like to mention is, that it takes a lot of courage to go fully into freelancing in this industry and it is not easy but if you are consistent and you figure out the way to work it out, it gives you a lot of freedom!
I will end this post here, and I hope you like it and that it brings some clarity. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or ideas for the new topics I could cover in the future :)
Love,
Ena :)
Differences and preferences of Photoshop and Lightroom
Hello again!
I have noticed that recently I get asked one question very often, and that is: Do you prefer Photoshop or Lightroom. Even without asking this question, somehow the topic of preferences between these two programs comes up very often.
Before I start telling you more about these two programs, I just want to say that everything that I will say is MY personal opinion and MY preferences. This doesn’t mean that this is the only right way, every photographer has its own workflow.
So as you probably know, Photoshop and Lightroom belong to the Adobe programs and are used mostly for photography purposes, Photoshop can be used for graphics as well.
Now I can say that I am FULL ON team PHOTOSHOP!
I personally do not like Lightroom at all. Very harsh first statement haha. So I will elaborate why. In my opinion Lightroom (Lr) is a pre-Photoshop (Ps) step. I use Lr to so to say prepare my file that I will later open in Ps and start the real work. Another way I use Lr is to import all of my photos from one session, and then I have a clear overview, I can create a preset and apply to multiple photos and see if all of them match colour-wise. After importing them I can also easily export them to small JPG files that I send to my clients to pick their final photographs that I will then retouch in Ps. So this is basically everything I use this program for. In my opinion this program became super popular in the past couple of years because it is really easy to learn how to use it and it is also available for the phone in a better version than Ps.
Preparation file.. as you might know there are different formats in which a photograph can be saved. The most known and used is of course a JPG. But what is the right way of getting to this format? The right way is to set your camera to photograph in RAW format (NEF) and NOT in JPG. What is a RAW format? Well, the word itself is giving it out a bit. RAW format is the initial format and it is the one that contains the more information of your photograph, meaning that you get a much better quality to work with later. RAW format cannot be opened just like that, and some of the programs that can open it are exactly Lr and Ps. For years I was only using Ps and I wasn’t preparing the file in Lr (I still do it sometimes, depending on the project). There is, let’s say a part of Ps that is called Camera Raw, it is the first window that pops up before you get to the Ps environment. You can also use this to prepare your file but the other way that I’m about to explain is a way that gives you a much better quality of the final work. So I import the RAW files to Lr, I create the most neutral, the closest to reality colour-wise, files and then I export them as TIF. TIF is another format that your photograph can be saved in, and it’s really really heavy, and why is that? it is because it contains THE MOST information. Very often if you print some massive formats, you will print them using the TIF format and not JPG.
Now when I explained a bit how I use this part, I will explain why I love Ps so much. First of all, for me it is just super logical and the program itself suits me much better. While I was studying architecture before getting into photography I used Adobe Illustrator (Ai) every day, and when I had to switch to Ps it made sense. It was a few years ago, today I opened Ai and got lost, haha, Ai 2020 seems to be a lot different than the one I used in 2013. Anyway, since this post is about Ps and Lr I will get back to track. Photoshop gives me a lot more freedom and options, I can work on each part of the photograph separately, and this is how you should be working very often. I mostly photograph portraits, fashion, beauty.. skincare products, and for these purposes I need to have the options of working on each element separately. When it comes to skin retouching, you really need Ps, it is impossible to be done in Lr in the same quality.
Hope this gives you a bit more of idea of how you could use these programs. Again, this is just my opinion that I have after working in this industry for almost 6 years. Let me know in the comments if this was helpful and if you would like me to cover some other topics :)
Love, Ena :)
Portrait photography session - home edition (tips and tricks)
Hello there :)
I have decided to talk more about what I know, and to share the knowledge I have. In this post I will talk a bit about portrait photography. And yes, it is home edition, which means I will show you how to create amazing portraits at home with almost no equipment. ;)
A few days ago I organised a mini photo-session with my close friend, and now next-door neighbour, Helga. You can do amazing home photo-sessions with almost no equipment and just a bit of creativity. First, create your mood-board (more about mood boards coming in the next posts). Think about what are you trying to say, what do you want to show, is there a story behind this, or you just want to create beautiful photographs for your portfolio? What I would suggest is to go to your closest bookstore that sells fashion or art magazines and take a look, this is the place to find inspiration from. Obviously, your inspiration can come from every day life, a movie, a book, a painting.. your friend can be your inspiration. A beautiful Sunday morning can also be inspirational. But try to stay away from Instagram inspiration. Why? One of the reasons why is that Instagram rarely offers a good quality photography, only if you would go to a specific accounts, such as the accounts of professional photographers, magazines, art accounts etc. What we mainly see on a daily basis on Instagram, is not the photography you want to use as guidelines.
After you have your mood board ready, you will need to figure out what do you need for this session. A model.. if you are just starting or you can’t afford to pay for the agency models, you can always ask some of your friends to model for you. It is always nice to offer them something in return for giving you their time, and well, themselves in some way. When it comes to the equipment, you will of course need a camera. I strongly believe that the camera does not make a photographer, meaning that doesn’t matter if you don’t have some crazy good quality camera.. you can still create amazing photos even using your phone camera (especially nowadays). Do you need some extra lights? Do you need any kind of special props? Do you need specific clothing? If you do, do you have that clothing or maybe your friend has it, or someone else can borrow you? These are just small things you should think about before you start your session.
Now we come to the part where I will show you how to create amazing photos with only using your camera and natural lighting.
As Helga is also an amazing artist (https://edottir.com) , we created the mood board together, talked about what do we want to create. We used what we had in her wardrobe and the natural light and furniture I have in the apartment I currently live in. For achieving this studio-like feeling, use the white walls in your apartment. If it’s possible, use the wall that is the closest to the light. Look around your apartment and see what kind of furniture you could incorporate into your photos. I love this elephants paining on the wall, and I decided to include a little piece of it. For me this painting represents a caring, loving person.. that Helga definitely is!
In case you don’t have a great light, and your camera can’t take nice bright photos, improve the lighting situation in your post production. Put the exposure a bit higher. Try out different situations and see what works the best.
Some of the cameras (depends as well on the lens you use) won’t be able to get that perfect bright crispy sharp photograph, but that’s okay, because you can create a specific mood if you put your ISO up, and your photograph gets this grainy look. Otherwise, user lower Aperture numbers, shutter-speed around 1/100,1/125 and ISO 100.
Hope this will help you in your next photo session, home edition.
Let me know what you created and if you have any topics you would like me to cover in my next posts!
Love,
Ena :)
Photography business guidelines - how to work with your photographer as a client
It’s been a bit more than a year since I’ve started this blog and I had some different plans for it, but as life changes, this little creative outlet has changed as well.
Now as I was sitting in my bed, talking on the phone with my best friend Carmen, she gave me an idea: “How about, and just a thought, you write some guidelines as how the photographers and clients should work”. And this is how the idea for this blog post came to life.
In the past years, and especially past year (funnily enough I’ve had the most different clients in 2020, and probably the most serious photo sessions) I had different clients, and with that come different experiences. Most of the experiences were amazing and some friendships were born out of the work we did together and I am so grateful for that, and I will cherish these moments forever!
But what clients very often don’t know is how to, so to say, treat the photographer. Most of the brands/agencies/companies/clients think that paying the invoice is enough, or in worst cases paying the work with so called “exposure”. The idea behind this blog post is not to complain how clients are doing everything wrong and they are being mean people and the photographers are these heavenly made creatures. The goal of this blog post is to explain how the workflow should look like (not for everyone, but from talking to some colleagues, the workflow is pretty much similar) so that the relationship between both parties gets better.
Communication!
Just like in every relationship, communication is essential! Both parties should communicate well and be very clear to what they want to achieve. If the client is the one approaching the photographer and is hiring her/him for the style she/he has, then it is often assumed by the photographer that they have a bit more freedom. In case that the client has a very clear vision of what they want to have as the final product, they should provide the photographer with some mood board, brief, some examples of what they have in mind so that the photographer knows what to deliver.
What should also be communicated in the very beginning is the workflow. What are the steps you are taking? - example: first the photo session is done, then I will send you the photographs to select the certain number which I will then retouch and after the invoice has been paid I will send you the final product
The workflow should be communicated in the beginning so there are no misunderstandings and confusions afterwards. You want to have a very good experience, no matter if you are the client or the photographer. No one wants extra work problems and unpleasant situations.
What I would highly suggest is to sign the contract. Specify all of your conditions and steps in the contract and have it signed, by this everything is clear and there are no misunderstandings.
Credits!
Something I have experienced A LOT is not being credited. And this happens to SO MANY people in the entire creative industry. What makes me think every time this happens to either me or any of my colleagues is, and I will focus on Instagram accounts now: these accounts that belong to brands or other people, exist because of the photographers, videographers and designers (fashion, graphic, product, etc..).. then why not crediting those people? what do you gain by doing that? and what will you lose by crediting these people that literally create your content? I assume you won’t lose anything, you can just gain a happy artist that will gladly work with you again.
There are situations where the artist gives all the rights to the client and where the artist agrees not to be credited, but these are some different situations.
As I am re-reading my first paragraph, it seems a bit angry to me hahah.. so I just want to make it clear that I also know that a lot of people don’t do this on purpose, some forget some just don’t know that this is how it should be. So then I will come back to the first point of this post, which is communication. As a photographer you can politely ask to be credited, or just be very clear about this before the work starts.
Exposure as a means of payment? I don’t think so!
There are a lot of discussions on this particular topic going around me lately. Why are brands not willing to pay their content creators? It will always be a mystery. And why are they offering “exposure” instead? Another mystery. What would happen if a person would come to a store and instead of paying with real money, they will ask to pay with exposure? Would the store let them? I don’t think so. What if you go to the restaurant and say: “so is it okay if I pay with some exposure”? Also, I don’t think it will work.
* Again, I do know there are situations where this happens, people with big number of followers on Instagram could potentially “buy” dinner with exposure, but this is not how it works for everyone.
But to come back to the photographer that is trying to earn for living, to pay all of the equipment, programs that are necessary, maybe manage to add something to the savings, and also earn back the money that has been put in the education. The offered exposure won’t do anything.
So what people usually think that they are paying for when hiring a photographer? A photograph. Sounds correct but there is also a backside story, you are actually paying for: education, equipment, programs, bills, rent, food, savings. To put it again to the comparison to the restaurant, you think you are paying for the meal you eat, but actually you are paying for the rent, for salaries of the people that work there, for the ingredients for your meal, and for the owner to earn something as well after all the bills have been paid.
Someone would argue that oh well you need food to survive, but doesn’t your brand also need photographs to survive?
Collaborations
This topic is somewhat an extent of the previous one. There are specific situations where no one earns any real money, but gains a product needed, and that is a collaboration. A collaboration means that a photographer will give the photographs in exchange for something. This doesn’t happen as often, these kind of collaborations are mostly made for influencers.
But what kind of collaborations you can have as a photographer? Fashion editorials! You could gather a team that combines a stylist, a model, a fashion designer/brand, a makeup artist etc.. and each member of the team does their job in order to get something that will be of use to them for self promotion, which is not money. So let’s say you have some friends in the industry that are doing these previously mentioned jobs, and you have an idea for an editorial. What you as a photographer can offer them is to give them your photographs that they can use for their portfolios and self promotion. A makeup artist needs a photograph to show what they have created, so they will need a photographer for that, if they don’t want to do it themselves. In this way, the makeup artist gets professional photographs of their work that they can use.
When it comes to collaborations, everything should be communicated in front, and please credit each other!
So this post got a bit longer than I have wanted it to be, but I will finish here. I certainly do have plenty of other tips and tricks on photography guidelines, “how to” topics in different genres and I will gladly share with you here. So more of these will be coming soon! :)
Portrait Photography Webinar+Manual
https://www.enaandjelkovic.com/webinars/portrait-photography-webinar
Welcome back to my blog!
I haven’t been active at all this year for so many reasons.. but, no excuses! Today I want to talk to you about my first ever Portrait Photography Manual (I am so excited.. and also freaking out hahah) aaand my Portrait Photography Webinar.
I have done a workshop in Advanced Photography last year, and I have done another 2 webinars this year so creating the webinar wasn’t as new as the manual.
This manual is a very short version of all the knowledge I have regarding Portrait Photography. I see it as my baby for sure. My main focus as a photographer is Portraiture (often in combination with Fashion) and creating this manual was definitely an amazing process.
Some people asked me why am I doing this? Why do I want to teach?
If you asked me this question a year ago I would probably say that I don’t see myself as a teacher. But then I got the opportunity to teach a full week workshop in Advanced Photography as a part of BEST Design week in Belgrade, Serbia (in my hometown, in my native language, which was definitely a challenge). After this week I started thinking that this might be something I am interested in after all. I have received an amazing feedback from my students and I have seen myself in a new light that never came to my mind. This is a little intro, but the main reason WHY I am doing this is because I really want to HELP other people in achieving what they desire in photography. I want to share my knowledge, and by sharing my knowledge I hope many people can get the results they want to achieve.
My biggest happiness is when I manage to explain to someone something regarding the photography and to see the smile on their face and the happiness in their eyes because they finally understood what was missing or this little part they needed to improve their work. For me it’s such a simple little thing I can do, but sometimes it can make someone’s day!
Some people prefer to learn by listening and not reading, that’s why I created the webinar as well. Webinar is more active and it gives you the opportunity to ask questions directly and get the answer right away. It is also an amazing way of networking :) Hope to see you on the 10th of September!
Well I hope you guys will like what I created, and there are more webinars and manuals coming soon! <3
Link for the webinar: https://www.enaandjelkovic.com/webinars/portrait-photography-webinar
Link for the manual: https://www.enaandjelkovic.com/photography-manuals/portrait-photography-manual
Online courses :)
WEBINARS
This blog post will be dedicated to the current situation we are all in and the way business has to be reinvented.
Being a photographer that mostly works with people, meaning mostly doing portrait and fashion photography, not being able to leave the house and meet people creates some challenges.
In my opinion, we should all take this time to reflect on the past and rethink the future. No one could even imagine something like this could happen on a global level, but every situation as bad as it is should be used to teach us something and we should keep the positive attitude and take the best out of it.
Last year I had a chance to teach a Photography course as a part of the BEST Design Week in my hometown, Belgrade. I never really thought of this before, and I wasn’t so sure how it will turn out, but when I was asked to do it, without thinking I said YES. The experience that I got from that one week is amazing and I realized I enjoyed sharing my knowledge and helping people where I can.
Personally, I like having my alone time, but when it comes to work I love working with people. In the creative industry, it is very important to see people around you as friends rather than competition, and to inspire each other to keep creating.
I am more than often asked by my friends to help them out with photography, the process of taking or the post production, and I am more than happy to help every time! Sharing is caring, after all, do you agree?
Going back to the present situation, I have created several online courses on photography. I would like to start with 3 topics that might be the most interesting: Portrait Photography, Mobile Phone Photography and the Photo Editing in Photoshop
1. Portrait Photography
This course has the goal to teach participants how to properly set their camera in order to achieve the results they want and to learn more about portrait photography. The course will be mostly theoretical but you will get the chance to send your work to me and receive feedback. This webinar is for everyone who is interested in learning more about portrait photography and it is mostly intended for amateurs, since the first part of the workshop is learning about basics in photography. In case you know about the basics in photography but still want to learn about portraiture, feel free to join us! :)
2. Mobile Phone Photography
Nowadays with the technology rising, mobile phones have amazing camera quality. Lots of people stick to their phone when it comes to photography. Join this course to learn more about the composition, light and tips and tricks when it comes to the mobile phone post production.
3. Photo Editing/Retouching
Goal of this workshop is to teach students how to achieve the best results regarding the post production. Bring your photography to the higher level with the help of Photoshop and Lightroom. This course will also explain how to take the best RAW file to work on later. This workshop is for everyone who is interested in learning about retouching and post production. You will learn basics in Lightroom and Photoshop. Having your own programs is not a requirement but it will be easier for you to follow.
Feel free to contact me for further information: enandjelkovic@gmail.com or dm me on Instagram @enandjelkovic!
Have a good weekend everyone! Stay positive and stay safe! :)
March 2020 we will all remember!
Hello again! :)
I haven’t really been active with the blog posts in the past months, but with the situation that we are currently in I will try to write more and give you ideas how you could spend this time in a creative way.
First I would also like to say something about the situation we are currently facing. This is serious! I am not a person that falls under the general panic so it took me a while to realise that this is a serious situation. Of course when you hear about something happening in another country and you go outside and see that life happens as usual around you, you ignore the situation. But this is NOT something that stayed located in one place, it got spread all over the world very quickly, and the end is not near. I am not a medical expert (even though I often like to pretend that I am lol) so I am not going to talk much about something that I don’t know or don’t understand. But what I do know is that we NEED to stay at home and stop this, or flatten the curve as people say. Whoever has the possibility to stay at home, work from home, don’t leave outside much, please do it! I often hear people saying: “nothing is going to happen to me, I’m young and healthy”. Sure, nothing is going to happen to you, but what people need to understand is that even if nothing happens to them they can easily transfer this virus to someone else, and then something can happen to someone else. Also, a few people told me that nothing will happen to me ‘cause I’m young. I am young, but with the chronic disease that I have I am in a danger zone so I will be isolating myself until it’s safe, and you should do the same. This is a situation where people NEED to start thinking of others and not just themselves!!
Now, since I am aware that people will get super bored, if they’re not already, I would like to share some ideas that you can do to use this time well and do something creative. :)
COOKING & BAKING
Even though I learned how to cook when I was a kid, there are so many recipes that I wanted to try out in the past years. I would always join my mom while she was preparing something and we always cooked together. Later I told her that I just didn’t want to study so I would come to her and ask if she needs help haha. Anyway, use this time to tryout all the recipes that you never have time to try. For me, I have wanted to make a homemade vegan pizza from scratch. And I finally did it! And it tasted really well ;)
What I would also like to say is, this is also a situation where we need to think about sustainability since we spend time at home a lot more than usual. So if you cook, try to plan your meals and cook for more days. Baked veggies, soups, lentils, even pizza (sorry Italians).
If you want me to share some vegan recipes, feel free to write me :)
PLANTING
I don’t know a person that does not like plants in their apartment/room! I have recently moved in to a new place, and so far no plants in my apartment which bugs me a little bit. I will use the following days to plant some plants. I had in mind lavender, mint, cherry tomato and basil. I am not the biggest fan of flowers, so for me these kind of plants are just perfect. I looove mint and basil as spices (basil and curcuma are the only spices I like haha). Lavender has such a great smell and you can dry it and put it in your wardrobe or just under the pillow. Cherry tomato, well, I hope it will work haha.
DRAWING/PAINTING
How many times did you tell yourself that you would like to know how to draw or paint, or just get better.. but there is never time? Now you have time, and you don’t need much! Just a simple paper and pen is enough :) There are so many classes online, check Skillshare.
BOOKS
For some people this is just a regular situation but there are so many of you that keep looking at those books on your shelves, take one now, and read it! Share the books and experiences with your friends to make it more engaging.
WORKOUT/MEDITATION
It is VERY important that we all continue with our workouts and meditations more than ever. Usually you at least walk to work, to the store, but now you only walk to the kitchen and back to the sofa. So workouts are super important! There are a few yoga instructors on Instagram that give their classes online, and I admire that so much! Meditation is also important since not leaving the house will get more difficult every day. Human beings need to interact and move around, with limited options, focus on your mind!
Thank you for reading this and I hope it helps!
Whoever needs a buddy to talk to, feel free to contact me!
I will be back with more ideas, lists of books, movies, TV shows, inspiring people to follow etc.
Stay safe and stay at home and don’t forget to WASH YOUR HANDS!!!
Ena :)
Catching up
Hello, it’s me again :)
I can’t believe that it has been almost 3 months since I’ve written my last post. Ending of 2019 was very hectic, as pretty much every ending of every year I guess. Then I ask myself why do I keep doing this, why do I leave everything for the end? This year’s resolution is definitely to figure out how to have a nice and relaxing December that I can enjoy, travel, spend time with friends and family.
This post doesn’t have any specific topic but catching up :)
First I would like to say and promise that there are some very interesting posts coming in the next weeks. Some new books, exhibitions, people. Also there, might, be some topics that I am not really sure how people are going to react to it, but hey, it’s my blog after all.
Some things I’ve been working on for the past months are:
writing my own book.. I started one and there are two more that might be published this year, hopefully
I have been working on some workshops that should be very interesting, I will keep you posted, one of them is coming sooner than you think
and also myself.. my attitude in 2019 was super off, I would often say that I feel like someone took over my life and is living it in an opposite way that I would.. now is the time to kick that person out and take over the control :)
That would be all for now,
See you soon :)
Welcome everyone!
For those who know me, this might not be a big surprise since they know how much I love talking and giving my opinion on lots of topics! :) For those who don’t know me, my name is Ena (actually Jelena is my real name, but I prefer using my nickname) and I am a Berlin based photographer and an art enthusiast. I originally come from Belgrade, Serbia (go on the map and find it since I’m pretty sure most of you have no clue what I’m talking about haha). I have recently graduated in Photography but before starting to study photography, I spent 2 years in the Architecture university, which even though I love architecture wasn’t something I felt like doing for the rest of my life. Since early childhood I have shown my artistic interest and beside painting and drawing I do remember these early cameras that in my family I was always the one to use. Acting was yet another activity that I enjoyed and practiced for a while.