A World That Others Can't See... with Zula Rabikowska

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Our role as photographers is to capture a world that others can't see, and in this process, we leave a little bit of us in every photo that we take. In a way, every single one of our photographs is also a portrait of ourselves.

In this series, A World That Others Can't See, I ask fellow photographers to talk about an image from their portfolios in order to discover the stories behind their work and to learn about the person behind the lens.

For the twelfth post of the series, social documentary and commercial photographer Zula Rabikowska shares with me her most recent work, from her self-portrait project "Becoming Herstory."

Zula says: “This image is part of my most recent series entitled "Becoming Herstory." This is a personal project which explores the idea of home, belonging and migration. I moved to the UK 20 years ago as a child and this move created a physical and cultural rupture with my family and Polish society. Using self-portraiture, I wear my ancestors’ clothes, connect with my family heritage, and highlight the war-torn complexity of Eastern Europe. I created this project during the 2020/21 winter lockdown and was my own creative director, stylist, assistant, model and photographer. The images were inspired by a personal need to reconcile parts of my family history and conversations with my mum.

My mum spent years bringing clothes and glassware from Poland to the UK, as these enabled her to maintain a physical bond with Polish culture, and helped us create a feeling of "home", something that we have always found difficult since moving to the UK. Holding onto these items facilitated a connection with the past and our family in Poland. In the series, I use various items, and amongst others, I include my mum’s first kitchen curtains, a handmade sheep coat, my grandma's special swimsuit and Coca Cola towels won in a radio competition. I “wear” and “perform” my family history and reflect on how the memories of women in my family have shaped my identity.

This self-portrait is called "My Mother's Dowery" and I wear my grandma’s special New Year’s Eve outfit, known as the “Nefertiti Collar” which was smuggled from Thailand. During Communism in Eastern Europe cash was largely worthless due to high inflation, and people invested in crystal, which was passed down through generations. It was quite normal for people to set up their own garden crystal productions and sell such items from their homes. The glass in this portrait was bought from my neighbours in Poland, which was part of my mum’s dowry. My grandparents, like a lot of of people at the time, invested in crystal, which was commonly referred to as "glass" (szklo in Polish), as a way of financial security, The background is created from a sequin fabric, which my dad used to sell in his clothes shop the 90s.

"My Mother's Dowery" from the series Becoming Herstory @ 2020 Zula Rabikowska

"My Mother's Dowery" from the series Becoming Herstory @ 2020 Zula Rabikowska

At the end of 2020, I found myself living back at home in London with my mum and my step-dad, and I started this series largely in response to my living situation and a way to stay busy during the winter lockdown. Since almost everything in the UK was closed during the winter months, and households were not allowed to mix, I became my own model and creative crew. I bought a studio lighting kit and in my mum's office set up a temporary studio for five weeks. She was using the room during the day for work, so the only time I could shoot was at 6am-9am and then after work and during the weekend, which created quite a strict shooting schedule for me. During the day I was looking at old family photos for inspiration, and sorting and compiling outfits from bags of clothes I found in the basement and the loft. My bedroom pretty much transformed into a dressing room full of clothes, makeup and wigs.

This was not the first time I was working with self-portraiture, as I developed an earlier project in the first 2020 lockdown called "Untried Realities", where I spent numerous hours behind and in front of the lens. This proved extremely useful, as when I started "Becoming Herstory" I was already comfortable with being the photographer and the subject. I created "Becoming Herstory" by placing my Nikon D800 on a Manfrotto tripod and used a self-timer, which gave me 10 seconds to move from pressing the shutter and arranging myself in front of a camera.

I am hoping that in the near future I will be able to organise an exhibition to show this work, and my plan is to exhibit the photographs alongside the clothes and objects that I used.

Thank you so much, Zula, for sharing with me such a beautiful project and the story behind it! You can see more of Zula's amazing project at zulara.co.uk or her social media @zula.ra.


If you haven’t read the previous posts of this series, you can check the whole series here.

Do you like what you just read? Consider becoming a patron on patreon.com/jccandanedo where you can learn more about my creative process and the stories behind my images. I’d love to have you as part of my Patreon community.

You can also subscribe to my weekly blog posts here!

A World That Others Can't See... with Chloe Rosser

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Our role as photographers is to capture a world that others can't see, and in this process we leave a little bit of us in every photo that we take. In a way, every single one of our photographs is also a portrait of ourselves.

In this series, A World That Others Can't See, I ask fellow photographers to talk about an image from their portfolios in order to discover the stories behind their work and to learn about the person behind the lens.

For the third post of the series, Chloe Rosser talks about her image 'Function 5, 4'. Chloe is a photographic artist based in London represented by L A Noble Gallery who has just released her new book Form & Function, available at Stay Free Publishing.

Chloe says: "This image is from my Form & Function series. In this work I hide all the identifying features of the figures - the heads, hair and hands. When seeing a body like this, you can't make the usual assumptions or judgements about a person that you normally would. Instead, you're able to focus on the details of the structure of the figure.

For these works, I try to use natural light whenever I can. I was usually shooting in people's homes, which means utilising window light as much as possible. This image doesn't get shown very much when the project is featured or exhibited, but it's actually one of my favourites. That's because of the quality of the light and how it falls beautifully over their shoulders, spines and muscles. They look so statuesque to me.

The other aspect I love about this image is the angle at which one of the figure's leg rests. It looks so strange, almost amputated. It rests there heavily and relaxed, but in a position which looks so awkward. Almost painful, but so calm.

The sole of that figure's foot is dirty from the floor. I see that as a little pop of humanity. We're looking at this pile of body parts, but right there is evidence of the human act of walking. For the same reason, I leave all the marks on the floors and walls - because it's proof the space is lived in.

I shot this image on a Canon 5D Mark III with a Canon EF 24-105 mm lens using natural light. The image is featured in my new book, Form & Function"

'Function 5, 4' © Chloe Rosser

'Function 5, 4' © Chloe Rosser

Thank you so much, Chloe, for sharing with me such beautiful image from your breathtaking work! You can see more of Chloe's amazing work on www.chloerosser.co.uk.


If you haven't read the previous posts of this series, you can check the whole series here. I hope you liked this new post and stay tuned for a different photographer each month!

Photo credit: portrait of Chloe Rosser © 2019 JC Candanedo

Do you like what you just read? Consider becoming a patron on patreon.com/jccandanedo where you can learn more about my creative process and the stories behind my images. I’d love to have you as part of my Patreon community.

You can also subscribe to my weekly blog posts here!

A World That Others Can't See... with Ivan Weiss

London-photographer-JC-Candanedo-Grey-Pistachio-Fashion-Corporate-Portraits-Headshots-Blog-Creative-Industry-London-a-world-others-cant-see-ivan-weiss-interview-feature.jpg

Our role as photographers is to capture a world that others can't see, and in this process, we leave a little bit of us in every photo that we take. In a way, every single one of our photographs is also a portrait of ourselves. In this series, A World That Others Can't See, I ask fellow photographers to talk about an image from their portfolios in order to discover the stories behind their work and to learn about the person behind the lens.

For the second post of the series, I spoke with Ivan Weiss, a London-based headshot and portraits photographer with a particular focus on the performing arts. Ivan walks us through the challenges he encountered while shooting this beautiful portrait.

Ivan says: "I was asked to do some promo images for a barbershop that's just opened up in East London. The shop is inside a shipping container in Containerville E2. So I knew I'd be dealing with very limited space, but it also gave me a cue to play on the long, narrow shape in my composition. Luckily I've been working a lot with wider focal lengths recently and I felt confident this would work. I took my 24-70mm just in case I was forced to change plans.

‘Troise & Sons’ © Ivan Weiss

‘Troise & Sons’ © Ivan Weiss

I had to work quickly as I only had 10 minutes with Davide in between clients. I had taken a compact version of my current favourite studio light set up. I rigged my key light as high as the ceiling would allow (i.e not very) and gaffer-taped a black cloth to the wall opposite to provide negative fill and prevent any bounce back. I was ready to roll as soon as he was. I took a few frames to get my levels right and immediately began regretting my decision not to bring a third light with me. The background was just too dark. Not bad for a moody portrait, but I needed something a bit lighter for this commercial image. Luckily, I was on a tripod. So I dropped the shutter speed down to 1/10 second and let the natural ambient light soak in to light my background.

I’ve chosen to share this image because it represents for me a fusion of my studio style with the environmental portraiture work that I’d like to be doing more of.”

For this shot, Ivan used:

  • Body: Canon 5DsR

  • Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm ƒ/2.8L II @35mm

  • Settings: ƒ/9, 1/10, ISO100

  • Key light: Godox AD200 in a 70cm SMDV Dodeca Speedbox pushed as far as possible into the corner of the ceiling and wall on camera right.

  • Fill light: Godox AD200 in a RayFlash ringflash adapter on camera.

Thank you so much, Ivan, for kindly taking part in my series and for showing us your amazing work! You can see more of Ivan's photography on http://www.ivanweiss.london.


If you haven't read the previous posts of this series, you can check the whole series here. I hope you liked this new post and stay tuned for a different photographer each month!

Photo credit: portrait of Ivan Weiss © 2018 JC Candanedo

Do you like what you just read? Consider becoming a patron on patreon.com/jccandanedo where you can learn more about my creative process and the stories behind my images. I’d love to have you as part of my Patreon community.

You can also subscribe to my weekly blog posts here!

A World That Others Can't See... with Benjamin Youd

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Our role as photographers is to capture a world that others can't see, and in this process we leave a little bit of us in every photo that we take. In a way, every single one of our photographs is also a portrait of ourselves. In this series, A World That Others Can't See, I ask fellow photographers to talk about an image from their portfolios in order to discover the stories behind their work and to learn about the person behind the lens.

For the first post of the series, Benjamin Youd talks about his image 'The Writer'. Ben is a London-based photographer who loves documenting natural emotions and interactions between people in a quiet and non-obtrusive way.

Ben says: "This image was taken as a part of a commission that I was sent on for housing charity, Shelter. I've called the image 'The Writer', as that symbolises a lot about the subject that I photographed.

"The initial brief was to travel to Bristol to meet with a lady who in her older years, had decided to gift the charity as a part of her Will. I was sent to take a few portraits to accompany a write up about the gift that she was giving them. When I met the lady, and we talked for an hour or so about her life, I realised that her story was worth so much more than a quick portrait or two. So, I ended up spending the entire day with her, talking in her apartment and walking through the grounds of the retirement village that she now lived in.

"She told me how much she loved to be involved with her community, and how despite living on her own, she kept herself busy with a variety of activities, such as drawing, writing, holding workshops, yoga, meditation, and playing the piano – to name just a few. I found her attitude, and approach to life amazingly inspiring. So, as we talked the hours away, I documented some of the activities that she described to me with such enthusiasm.

"This particular image depicts her love of writing and story-telling. Something she's liked since she was a lot younger, and now passes on through her own experience, as she engages young people in writing classes and workshops.

"My intention with this shoot was to make it as natural as possible, so although I did bring along a set of consistent lights, I didn't end up using them. They would only ever have been used in this occasion to brighten up the ambient light, but fortunately her living room had a huge set of west facing windows, which let in some really beautiful light. The fall off of the light was pretty dramatic as you went further into the room, but this allowed for a more dramatic approach, using deeper shadows to define features.

"I was the only one on this shoot, which is often the nature of working with charities. To some extent, working in this way is quite freeing, as you really get to connect with your subject, and pay attention to the setting and light. It also limits the amount of kit you can take with you, so you're often looking for the best available light.

"I think at the time, I was using a Canon 5D MKII, and this would have been shot with a 24–70mm f2.8 lens, at around 35mm to get the wider angle. Metering for the light hitting the subjects face from the window enabled me to get more of a dramatic and high contrast image."

'The Writer' © Benjamin Youd

'The Writer' © Benjamin Youd

Thank you so much, Ben, for being so keen to take part in my series and for showing us your amazing work! You can see more of Ben's beautiful work on www.benjaminyoud.com.


If you haven't read the previous posts of this series, you can check the whole series here. I hope you liked this new post and stay tuned for a different photographer each month!

Photo credit: portrait of Benjamin Youd © 2018 JC Candanedo

Do you like what you just read? Subscribe to my weekly blog posts here!