Between image, narrative and strategy

My work lives between two places: editorial and commercial. I need the first because it lets me experiment, build narratives and test ideas without having to justify straight away what they are for. I'm drawn to the second because it forces those ideas to have intent: there is a brand, an identity, and a person on the other side we are trying to reach.

I don't see them as opposites. The point where they meet is the part that interests me most.

I came to photography from film. That is probably why I start with the world a picture lives in before I start with the picture itself. I research, build references and prep books, and work through casting, styling, location and light. Those are the small decisions that make one image belong to the same universe as the next. By the time I get to set I want enough clarity to also leave room for what I didn't plan.

I rarely work alone: depending on what a project needs I bring in styling, hair and makeup, production and assistants, or I step into the team a client already has. What does not change is that someone has to carry the idea from the prep book to the last frame, and that is my job.

In the last few years I've moved closer to the marketing and strategy side of fashion, most recently through a master's at ELLE Education. It changed how I look at my own work: not only what I want to create, but what that image does inside a brand's world. That is where I am right now, trying to make sure nothing exists just because.