Photographer

Photography is the art or practice of taking and processing photographs. Despite not being interested in pursuing it as a career, I have always had an interest in taking and admiring photographs. It's one of those hobbies that give me the 'I did that!' feeling, and viewing photographs is the easiest way of transporting yourself to a completely different place and time. In this blog I will summarise an interview I listened to with photographer Julia Hetta, who I recently discovered and felt particularly inspired by.

Credit: Gémeaux by Julia Hetta

Julia Hetta is a Swedish photographer, she has shot for magazines such as Vogue Italia, British Vogue, L'Uomo Vogue, Dazed, W, AnOther, among many other publications. I listened to a podcast from Dior Talks, discussing Hetta's route to fashion photography and her inspiration. Here is my summary and takeaways from the podcast, accompanied by some of my favourite photographs by Julia:

[Female gaze] The photography rule-breaking fashion photographer discusses her career, aesthetic and portraying women.

Question: How did the darkroom you had growing up introduce you to photography and how did it impact you and shape you as a photographer?

Hetta's introduction to photography was a darkroom her father had in their basement. She began experimenting in black and white, feeling familiarity between that and her previous hobby of sketching using pencil. She would read through her father's photography magazines, taking in inspiration until she was confident enough, and eventually called up an agency where she ended up working as a photojournalist for 6 years, never asking anyone in that time if she could become an assistant like she wanted to due to her shyness. Over these years she built up an archive of mostly photojournalistic pictures and not much fashion photography like what she captures now.

Question: Your father and younger brother were important in your work. Can you tell me about the work you did together?

Hetta's younger brother was who she started photographing when she started in the darkroom and when she was making her own world, he was interested and wanted to be a part of it, so he became the model for her photography. They did a lot of nature and still life photography and then later when he finished school he went to Paris and began his work in fashion. Hetta was at an art academy in Amsterdam at this time.

Question: One thing you are known for is the way your work draws on the

15th century era of classical painting, mainly by using chiaroscuro light and

intricate details.

Hetta explains how the lighting she uses in her work is like that of how it is like

in Sweden as the light source is so small. When studying in Holland, she looked

at a lot of baroque historical works and always loved old portraits that can almost

take you out of the room you're in with how captivating the eyes are. She enjoys

the dark, heavy feeling, the stillness and depth.

Question: Do you think you bring a different gaze to that style as a woman?

Hetta does wonder if her work would have looked different if she was a man or

not. She does believe there could be a noticeable difference between art done

by men and women, but she has been surprised by this before and keeps an

open mind. She agreed with the interviewer when saying that maybe in the

outcome it is not always evident, but maybe something in the way the subject is

approached and framed that might subtly hint at the fact there is a woman

behind the camera.

Question: As someone who has described themself as a romantic, why do you fight against that and is it still true?

Hetta says this is still true despite loving that side of herself, but sometimes she feels like she doesn’t want to be stuck in one box and wants to develop and continue reaching other borders. When working with beauty it is important to have other ingredients that are the opposite of beauty included to highlight the beauty otherwise it doesn’t appeal (to her).

Question: [mentioned in a book through one of the characters] The romantic idealised vision of love and beauty is the root cause of envy and disillusion. Is this something that you also think about when you're working with fashion images and the way they might be consumed and perceived? How might this relate to your concept of Lagom (a Swedish word meaning "just the right amount")?

Hetta finds it important to include other ingredients beside beauty, yet she finds it hard understanding what the term really consists of as it is so broad. There must be a balance of beauty and darkness. A poem Hetta found interesting, and she works with that talks on how you shouldn’t be afraid of the dark as the light sees it, for example, you wouldn’t see the stars if there was no darkness.

Question: Can you explain more on the Lagom? What does it mean and where does the concept come from?

The word Lagom would be used when something is imbalanced. Such as if you want to have some milk, you don’t want to have too much nor too little, you want to have Lagom. It also has an ancient way of thinking, sensibility.

Credit: Carcy Magazine Issue 5 by Julia Hetta

Question: Nature has an important role in your work. What is the meaning of that and the still life images?

From the beginning, Hetta enjoyed pairing pictures together to see what would happen, she experimented with nature and still life's in her portraiture with her brother. Working with magazine there wasn't always a place for it, but she always liked mixing in other things such as still life and nature to create more of a feeling, atmosphere or story.

Question: Talking on what you’ve done with Dior, you did something for the magazine on optical illusions. Could you tell me more about that shoot?

Hetta did a black and white theory inspired by the painter Leonor Fini, and prior to being asked to shoot for Dior, she had been watching a documentary on Leonora Carrington, who happened to be a friend of Leonor Fini (and coincidentally having an affair with the same man!). She spent two weeks looking at Leonor Fini's work and the new collection from Maria Grazia thinking on what she could do with the team. They created a surreal stage for the women wearing the clothes working with set designers and stylings, and so on. She was somewhat afraid of being the only one working alone, being the photographer.

Question: Is there one female photographer or female artist that you particularly admire or appreciate?

Hetta has mentioned before that she has a list of at least 6 women she has been inspired by, but someone she often goes back to is Francesca Woodman who she has admired since she was 16 years old, as well as Lee Miller, Imogen Cunningham and a few others.

Credit: S/S17 Dazed by Julia Hetta

Credit: S/S Vivienne Westwood Bridal collection by Julia Hetta

Credit: A/W19-20 Dior Haute Couture by Julia Hetta