E24: Zoe Akihary - Inspired Wisdom

 

Zoe Akihary

 From a recent campaign called ‘Embody Confidence’ for Estrid, a razor brand. A campaign in which we fight against digital censorship when it comes to our bodies and embody pure confidence to dismantle outdated beauty norms and celebrate our unedited, unapologetic selves. [More below]
 All images are courtesy of the artist.

I’m from the Netherlands, I grew up close to Rotterdam. Moved to Amsterdam to study and work and recently moved to Berlin and am now based between Berlin and Rotterdam. I work as a freelance art director in the fashion- and advertising industry. I work quite all-round, so sometimes spend a lot of time researching trends or do visual research, sometimes I solely focus on creating concepts which is quite strategic and think-heavy and can also be really involved with the production side of things. So really fun! I also do some photography on the side, as a creative outlet for myself and not having to work according to client guidelines. At the moment, I am in a year long project for a really fun sports brand and get to travel and do all the stuff I like! 

Zoe Akihary, the creator

Around 5 years. I started as a blogger when I was around 11 years doing runway reviews and sharing inspiration, so I was always very much into this. Then I started studying and did some graphic design work on the side and photography for my parents brand they used to have. Then I interned at PVH (Tommy Hilfiger & Calvin Klein) and Converse, and realised I didn’t want to be client-side but do the actual work so I went agency side and have been doing it ever since, but only started freelancing this January!

Nothing specific, except for that whatever you do. Remember that it is okay to be a total beginner at first and nothing should ever prevent you from sharing your work and passions with the world, as long as you radiate positivity and show the first step in connecting (even if it is by email, because I am the biggest introvert!) it can bring you so much.

 

Zoe - Thank you for carving time out of your schedule to talk with us. I think this is the first time we're meeting.  Let's get to the questions: 

What do you love about making art?

I love seeing the world in a different way, everything brings me inspiration. When I wake up and see how the sun hits the walls, I think of a story. When I sit in a cafe and overhear a conversation and see cool people walking by with the best outfits. Reading books, playing games, walking around, chatting with friends everything can be a starting point for what you create next.

How do you evaluate your work?

I try to not overthink! I often think the first idea is best. There are usually also so many rounds of feedback from different clients, so if an idea popped up and it made me enthusiastic and sparked ideas I just start working on it. If an idea doesn’t come naturally and have to force it out and don’t feel strongly about it, I try to regroup with the team and have everyone give some input to know where I go next. Even if they are account managers, strategists or resource managers, everyone knows the project and can help.

"...I want people to feel like it makes them feel calm and serene and a little bit dreamy..." - Zoe

Where is your studio, and what is your primary work area?

I mostly work from home. Sometimes from a cafe, but I spend a lot of time in online meetings and need to focus. When I have days where I work purely on visuals, like photo selects, edits, mood boards etc I try to work from a different place. For my personal projects, I shoot a lot outside because I love natural light or in studio’s in Berlin and Amsterdam.

What clues or questions do you use to select an idea to invest time and resources?

I have two jobs (art director & photographer). I think as an art director my work is way more culturally relevant, younger target group and feels more fresh and new. As a photographer, I just love to create what is in my daydreams or my thoughts so the work is automatically a lot more dreamy and simple. Usually when I work on art direction project I ask myself ‘is this cringe?’ Which sounds kind of dumb, but in my opinion a lot of brands have very generic messaging that just looks silly like ‘be you to change the world’ or stuff like that. I want to avoid that, I think research into the audience you speak to is so important, knowing how to show up in their world in the most authentic way and find an overlap with the brand.

About your work: what do you hope people notice the most?

I hope my work makes people stop and think, that’s interesting and exciting. I want people to want to know more about the brand and product through my art direction. My photography work I want people to feel like it makes them feel calm and serene and a little bit dreamy, that work is my creative outlet which is shown in the way I experiment with film, super8 and collages and I want people to know it is okay to just experiment and have fun with visuals and simply have fun with it. 

Work for Nike Kids x Roblox to launch the first Air Max for kids in Nikeland, creating "Airtopia", a world by kids for kids.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure is listening to a true crime podcast while going on a iced matcha walk, I also love laying in bed and play animal crossing home and decorate homes or spend all night cooking a very extra dinner for my boyfriend with a glass of wine on a random Tuesday.

How do you define success as a creative? How do you hold yourself accountable?

I define my success as a creative when I am able to say no to jobs or brands that don’t match with my values and can sustain myself financially. I started freelancing this year and was really scared I had to work on brands (as the market is not doing well right now) that do not align with my values and find a random side job, but it ended up very well. I worked on a brand that felt very wrong in my previous full-time job that I couldn’t leave at that time and felt guilty everyday.

From: Weight of Dreams

Personal project called ‘Weight of Dreams’ with ballerina Daniela Thorne from Staatsballett Berlin. Shot on an old film camera and filmed it on Super8; film release pending

When do you discuss things with your inner critic?

Every day I journal, when I feel down or sad I write down what I feel sad about and basically keep writing until I see everything from a different perspective. When I get overwhelmed and have a lack of time to do the things I want I can be really hard on myself, but then I remind myself I don’t even want to do more but all I need is a day of rest.

Who are your creative influences, and whose work are you admiring now?

This changes a lot, because I try to surround myself with a lot of different types of inspiration. However, I always love Tyler Mitchell’s work and everything Thom Browne and Marc Jacobs.

How can people follow you and your work?

I have a newsletter on art direction called artdirection.substack.com, my work can be found on www.zoeakihary.com and will very soon have a portfolio update with a lot of new work and my photography can be found on @zoeakihary on instagram but soon on my website.

What would you like people to know that I haven't asked?

Don’t overwork yourself ever! It will weaken your ideas, creatives can’t always give output and give, give and give. They need time to recharge, even when they think they don’t. Also don’t get stuck in the algorithm and try to always find new ways of being fed with inspiration.

Zoe - Your passion for art direction is truly inspiring. I know our audience will be captivated by your story. And I especially love what you said about self-care. Please come back anytime you have something to share.

 

More from the Estrid campaign "Body Confidence"

E23 - Women's Art History: Anne Brigman - Transforming an Artist’s View {{Mar 4}}

Anne Brigman, 20th Century Photographer

Soul of the Blasted Pine [yalebooks.yale.edu ]

Anne Brigman (1869–1950) was ostensibly a well-known Photo-Secession working group member. Belonging to avant-garde circles had its advantages, but the typical coed composition of such groups came with new obstacles for women artists. Often finding themselves the single female member in a group, women artists faced the threat of being marginalized or overshadowed by the disregarding views of male members.  [Baring Themselves-...] . [THE SOFT-FOCUS LEN...]

Self-portrait, the artist; 

[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Anne_Brigman]

Where is the photographer from?

Anne Brigman was born Anne Nott in Hawaii to a family of British missionaries who moved to California when she was 16. In 1894, she married a captain of the merchant navy, Martin Brigman, whom she would often accompany on his journeys. [awarewomenartists.com]

When was the photographer making images?

Her most famous images were taken between 1900 and 1920, and depict nude women in primordial, naturalistic contexts. [wikiart.org]

Trained as a painter, she turned to photography in 1902.

 "In all of my years of work with the lens, I’ve dreamed of and loved to work with the human figure – to embody it in rocks and trees, to make it part of the elements, not apart from them." – Anne Brigman 

What were the cultural/historic events that influenced the photographer?

 After the San Francisco earthquake and inferno destroyed the old wooden city in 1906, locals often referred to the event by conjuring the figure of a raging, fire-breathing dragon, wreaking its havoc on the city of sin.  The apocalypse marked the end of the old romantic, picturesque city and sent a phalanx of artists and bohemians into a mass departure into Berkeley’s hills and Carmel’s secluded beaches.

She was influenced by and an active influencer of the Soft-Focus Lens and Anglo-American Pictorialism era. [THE SOFT-FOCUS LEN...] Brigman’s 1908 photograph, Soul of the Blasted Pine [fig. 2], exemplifies the photographer’s distinct aesthetic that was centered on depictions of the female nude in nature. In this photograph, a female figure rises from the remnants of a tree on a rugged outcrop in the mountainous California landscape. [Baring Themselves-...]

Bare in the Backwoods
[https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/30/arts/30brigman-01/30brigman-01-videoSixteenByNine3000.jpg]

Her background in painting was particularly evident in her early work, where she employed extensive post-processing, editing her negatives using pencils, paints, and superimposition.

 

How would you describe the work of the photographer? 

A little story, bear with me: In the summer before the earthquake, she had posed her sister and friends as nymphs enjoying the cool, refreshing breezes and waters of mountain glades. After the quake, she tramped through the same wilderness; Brigman discovered it to be a place of mysterious caverns and sinister shape-shifting trees. [blog.yalebooks.com]

Photographs of the mountains no longer appeared simply as a place to find personal transformation in experiences of awe and renewal. Still, it was now also a place of encounter with sudden death—reverberating with the nightmare of destruction back home in the Bay. Thus, her work evolved from a pure pictorial style to more of a straight photography approach, although she never really abandoned her original vision. [wikiwand.com]

Why is this photographer important to the history of photography?

Bold and revolutionary, the practice of Anne Brigman challenged the norms of her time. Critically acclaimed pictorial photographer in 1900s America, but also a poet, critic, and mountaineer, she made nature her studio, photographing female nudes in California’s spectacular and still relatively remote Sierra Nevada Mountains. Anne Brigman's photography was primarily influenced by European Symbolism but also drew on pagan mythology, Romanticism, and her childhood exposure to the native beliefs of the Hawaiian people. Her work came into view in conjunction with the birth of bohemian-core culture famously attributed to 20th-century California.  [widewalls.ch]

More images: https://www.artsy.net/artist/anne-brigman