Michelle Watt takes on a surreal tone for her trend pictures
Fashion and portrait photographer Michelle Watt said she first pursued a career in the industry to gain access to people and places that she admired. "I think I was looking for some kind of validation and photography was a vehicle for that," she says. “I did it diligently. I also found some pictures that moved me like no other work of art could. When I finally found out I had something to say, the only way to say it was through photography. "
For Watt, photography is now a lifeline and an integral part of her life. "In (my) pictures I can build worlds in which to explore topics that arouse both amazement and agony, great and terrible, while I feel safe," she explains. “By piecing together tiny details into larger images, I can make the smallest, most overlooked parts meaningful in the big and chaotic scheme of things. It gives me a sense of control amid the chaos of real life. "
All pictures Michelle Watt
Watt & # 39; s style is chic and stylized, balanced by a sense of moody and fantastic elements, with added tension. "I want to highlight and embrace our flaws and what makes us human, both the beauty and the shame, without giving in to judgment too much," she says.
"Often this has to do with the fact that I was oppressed as a Sino-American woman. Many of the topics in my work touch on freedom and restriction of cultural and sexual identity."
By portraying subjects and scenes in a surreal way, Watt believes she can express these more complex and personal ideas and emotions more effectively than literally. By placing unexpected objects side by side, her thoughts are hinted at in a way that creates an intimate understanding between herself and the viewer.
In addition to personal projects, Watt also works on a number of editorial and commercial assignments on which she teamed up with the New York Times, Vogue Italia, North Face, LG and Cadillac. “My favorite part of working on commissions is working together. You're working in pursuit of something bigger than any of you, and that kind of connection is exciting, ”says Watt. “It's like you're building a house together, and they're in charge of the structure and foundation, and you've been asked to come in and decorate. Or vice versa. Either way, when you're done building the house, you can Have a party there until dawn. "
Collaboration is an integral part of the photographer's practice and she believes it is "the most important tool and resource in this industry". "I am nothing without my employees," she says. "I'm only as great as my subjects and the artists (models, stylists, set designers, producers, make-up and hair artists, etc.) who help bring the images to life." According to Watt, one of their biggest challenges is finding a team of people, or even a commissioner, willing to take on the scale of their ideas.
“It seems the industry is now more invested in producing the simpler, more serious types of images that are currently flooding the market. They're less about imagination than about realism (or what Getty Images calls "conceptual realism"), ”explains Watt. “Her focus is on tackling the uncomfortable realities of our current social, political and ecological climate in a gentle, yet well-founded way. You want to persuade, calm down, strengthen. "
Watt also believes that with the relentless scrolling of social media, the industry is looking for quantity and therefore losing quality. “But the industry works in cycles, and I hope it will return to a place where whimsy and play are revered and where storytelling can be a feast of complex, fantastic, wild details, even if simple, serious Topics are covered, "says Watt.
“The industry will realize that the quality it brings out will trump the quantity that is currently numbing its audience. Suffice it to say that in tiny folds and crevices around the world, in the shabby underbelly of Instagram and Behance, I've spotted many artists working together to bring the piece back, thirsty to reinvent their craft, try new identities, to encourage their alter ego to realize dreams beyond realism. I'm totally ready for this, let's go! "
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