Wednesday 28 October 2009

8.1 / Massive black truth / Danny Miller

What: Designer and publisher
Where: London, United Kingdom
Website: The Church of London Design

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We like him because…
Hello! I am Danny Miller, and I make magazines and design things, and write lots of emails and talk lots of bullshit, and some sense too. My history is very mag-centric, and it's hard to talk about it without repeating the word magazine over and over, so I'll try not to. In short, I designed my school mag, did an art foundation course, went to Newcastle Northumbria to study graphic design but didn't like the course there so I spent all my time designing the university magazine instead. I also fell in love with a publication called Adrenalin (a beautiful surf, skate and snow mag) and did work experience there a bunch of times and got really lucky and was offered a job, then moved to London (in 2002) to be junior designer.

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For my final project, in the third year at university, I made a movie mag called Little White Lies (LWLies). I got content for it from my friend Matt, who'd been writing for our university mag, and made the whole thing – it was a good idea, though pretty badly executed. So anyway, I came to London to work at Adrenalin and Little White Lies issue 0 sat on my shelf for a few years. While I was at Adrenalin, I decided that I wanted to make LWLies for real, so I spent a long time conducting espionage, seeing how the sales, subscriptions, marketing department, etc operated – figuring out print costs, production issues, how to distribute, all that kind of thing. And just as I was getting an idea of how I might make my own mag, the company we were working for went bust and I just thought 'Fuck it, I'll give it a try'. I had a little money saved and a credit card. We just made LWLies 01 (in Jan 2005), got it printed (about 3000 copies) and I got it into Borders, Virgin and maybe a few other places. And that was that. It's just grown, very, very slowly and painfully so ever since.

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In his spare time…
Well, when I started LWLies there was me, Matt Bochenski (to edit the mag), Paul Willoughby and Rob Longworth (to design the mag) and we cracked on and made four or five issues, staying up late at night and being poor and doing all that clichéd stuff that people do when they make magazines. And then we decided to re-launch Adrenalin, and did so as Huck magazine. Huck did really well and made a little money. We made six of each a year, scheduled alternately. As we moved out of my kitchen and into a small office (and then a slightly bigger office) we got more people around us, excellent people (I know everyone says that, but hey) and started to get our act together a bit. What we found was that, thankfully, people responded really well to both mags, and would ask us to write and design things, and sometimes make magazines for them. Wwe did all of those things and turned ourselves into a little design/creative/publishing agency, which slowly evolved into who we are now, which is The Church Of London – a creative agency. So, what I'm doing now is running this agency. And in my spare time, I'm mostly thinking about running this agency. . .
How he knows what he knows…
I learnt very little about what I do now through formal education. I just learned from looking at other magazines (really carefully) and reading books about them, and studying them. I've been obsessed with mags forever – I'm one of those mega-lucky people who's always known what they want to do with their life.

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As a young one…
I was an incredibly normal and average child/teenager who enjoyed doing exceedingly normal things like playing computer games and footy and being lame with girls. I haven't changed much at all. Seriously, I'm exactly the same.
Where'd he get his confidence…
I don't think that I'm arrogant but I've always been totally confident going into things. Kind of obliviously confident, I guess. I always thought I had a good understanding of magazines and could make one of my own. I thought I understood what made them work properly and what people connected with in them. And then when we started trying to turn our hands to design for other clients and brands even though I knew it'd take a long time to get good at it and understand it (and even though I know that we're still a long way away from where we want to be as group of creative people trying to do good work) I felt and feel really confident that we're going somewhere good and that we'll be successful. So, yeah, what made me think I'd be good was an in-built sense of naive confidence.
Right now…
Lots of side projects, most of which stem from LWLies. We're making a TV programme, organising a three-day festival and launching another magazine, all sorts of things. Many of them probably won't ever happen but I enjoy thinking about them and I recognise that there's lots to learn from exploring all options. I'd say that we're very enthusiastic about doing new things without kidding ourselves that any old pipe dream we have is going to happen. Someone once said to me that big ideas were the scourge of my generation. I disagree!

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The ups and downs…
I like working with nice people, who feel exactly as I do about publishing and design, and life in general. I dislike that my job has turned into a largely administrative role. I dislike that we all still earn no money and are also often only able to pay our contributors very little money.
Early life…
I grew up in Chester, which is a mostly nice enough place. Did it affect my life choices? Chester didn't but my upbringing did, I guess. My parents ran their own business, pretty successfully, so maybe that's where my in-built sense of comfort in doing something of my own comes from?

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Encouraging homefront…
I never told my family I was making LWLies until the first issue was printed, just in case it never happened. They seem to like it and other stuff we've done too. But, to be honest it's not something they can massively engage with. As for friends, they're the people I work with, pretty much, and we've all encouraged each other along the way. Everything we do now – everything we've done – it's all down to a core group of people, best friends really, who've brought energy and enthusiasm and bill-paying-skills to everything we've done. We're dedicated. And there's nothing more encouraging to me than working hard, while knowing for a fact that everyone around me is working just as hard and cares just as much as I do about the quality of what they're doing.

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The power of family…
My family is awesome and super-chilled. As I mentioned earlier, my folks ran their own business and, though they didn't exactly get rich off it, they did well – it afforded me a comfortable upbringing. I believe very much in people being a product of their environment and I guess I'm a clinical case of that. As for my creative decisions, I dunno, I think they all just come from me, to be honest.
Hurdles, hoops and rings of fire…
This is a really boring and obvious answer but it just has to be money. I've earned nothing for five years – just nothing. I'm crippled by debt and I ain't getting rich anytime soon. It's difficult not to get angry about it sometimes. This route that we've taken has been extremely costly for many of us who were earning more money before we began our own endeavours. This really does go for all of us. We don't talk or moan about it (even though we talk and moan about everything else from time to time) very much – we just get on with it. In summation, I'll work all day on Saturday if needs be but when I leave the office at 7pm to head home, contemplating the fact that I basically won't be recompensed for it in any way, I am displeased.

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The most amazing lesson…
Honestly, I think the most important thing I've learnt about myself and my creativity is that I'm not an amazing designer but I do have a good intuitive feel for this business so I should just leave that work to the people in our team who know it best. What I'm saying is that I've learnt to really focus on what I definitely am good at, and not what I'm not good at. I must always be realistic about it because when you have someone doing a job that they're born to do, they'll progress 100 times quicker than someone else who's heart isn't really in it or who's talent isn't really up to it. As an example, we've had various members of our team shoe-horned into a distribution role since we started out and we've all done a fairly poor job at it. Recently we took on someone who wanted to do nothing else but to help us distribute our magazines and who was damn good at it too. The results have been amazing. She's done more in four months than I did in four years because this is the job for her.

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The best advice he's received…
My first boss told me that if you put two people in a room, you'll get office politics. That wasn't advice exactly, but it's stuck with me.

Does he collect stuff…

I don't collect anything anymore. I'm a non-consumer. I buy nothing apart from food and drink.

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When he's uninspired…
I look at old copies of amazing magazines. And I go to the cinema or watch films that I love. I'm inspired by other people's talent more than anything, so just to immerse myself in it for a while is enough to get my brain kick-started again.
A few of his favourite things…
London, New York and The Lake District, Radiohead and films rather than books. I love Paul Thomas Anderson. Something that would make me so happy is if I found out that Thom Yorke and PTA read LWLies. Oh, and that Barack Obama read Huck. That would be amazing. I totally reckon he does as well, on the loo in Air Force One.

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And a few of his favourite websites…
Other than our own, I read Jeremy Leslie's magCulture and, erm, Creative Review's blog and the MediaGuardian annnnd… that's it.
To relax he likes…
Watching films, chilling with me missus, eating scratty food in cafés 'round Old street and running, believe it or not. There are lots of nice places to run in London, even though it mostly smells terrible.

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If he could turn back the hands of time…
Oh, man, don't ask me that. I'd rip up the credit card mentioned in question 1 of this interview for starters. Other than that, there's not an awful lot I'd do differently. We've always learnt and grown stronger from making lots of mistakes, so I guess I wouldn't want to just go back and start eliminating them.
Inspiring folks…
I'm going over old ground a bit again here but it'd have to be Thom Yorke and Paul Thomas Anderson just for being exceptionally talented and creative people who are absolutely the best at what they do. In my opinion anyway.

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Immediate future…
Our plans are to keep thinking of more exciting projects and trying to make them happen, while ensuring that we're sensible and can run a good, solid business at the same time. We're very serious about keeping afloat, doing things by the book and progressing as a company, which is all rather boring, but absolutely essential.
His dream life…
Sickeningly, I'm kind of doing what I always wanted to do already. In my dream world, our company would grow from 15 people to something big, but not huge – say 50 or 60 people – and make more magazines, do more design work, be respected and we'd all continue to be excited about things. My personal dream is to run a small independent cinema from which Little White Lies is made I'll just hang out there, watching films and propping up the bar (there'll be a bar).
Advice to aspiring designer-publishers…
I would advise them to find a place, or places they want to work, and aggressively (but nicely) pester the relevant people there until they let you come do work experience. Then go there and work hard, and hope that something comes of it. I'd also advise people to do their own thing, to show the world that you're serious about what you want to do. Make something of your own, and get it out into the world somehow.
Continue reading...

Tuesday 20 October 2009

11.1 / Dreaming in colour / Khaya Mtshali

What: Artist
Where: Pretoria, South Africa

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His name is what…
My name is Khaya or 'hisnameiskhaya'. My medium is drawing with pens and markers on paper and painting digitally for digital print or lithography. I drew a lot using graphite pencils as well as the very vivid Albrecht Durer Watercolor Series by Faber Castell in years gone by. I discovered digital media while studying Multimedia Design at Vega in Johannesburg. The computer studios were open 24 hours every day of the month including holidays so I spent a lot of time there, becoming proficient in a number of programmes before having my own computer.

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Right now…
I’m making a series of digital prints. I'm not sure what to say about them yet. But I do know they all have something to do with the spirit of freedom and happiness and plenty. It may also have something to do with the cult of beauty, youth and wealth. The colours are washed harmonies of watercolours. My colours are actually very dull, but they feel bright. The line is bold, but has another quality to it. Each print is about a meter in height or width.

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How he learned…
It’s always a combination of desire and practise. You learn to do something by wanting to do that thing and then doing it. I’ve had many years of good practise.
As a young one…
I was a quiet child and teenager, but not necessarily shy. I made a lot of friends. In school I was good at everything I wanted to be good at (academics or sports). The things I liked as a child are the same as the things I like today. I liked Sesame Street, which played great music and great musical animations. I liked watching Charlie Brown on Peanuts. I loved drawing. I liked trees, rivers, mountains, the ocean, waterfalls, clouds, rain, fields and green grass. I loved cartoons and I used to tell people that cartoons are harder to draw than actual people and things.

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Being good…
I’ve always been drawing. Its not a question of thinking I’d be good at it.
On the side…
I have no side-projects. I like everything I do to be a natural extension of everything else I do. I feel it’s best for me not to multi-task.

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Loves work, loves work not…
Love: The way I’m able to resonate with people through my work and the way the world is open. Dislike: Nothing about what I do.
Place of origin…
I grew up in Ga-Rankuwa and Soshanguve, South Africa. It was very sunny and dusty. There were very few trees and a lot of open spaces. I guess that made me appreciate trees, become sensitive to atmosphere (when it rained it rained hard) and spatial qualities. I also put a lot of sunshine in my work. My colours tend to be washed out probably because of they way I experienced the sun.

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Encouraging home front…
Yes. My parents have supported my decisions (while sometimes being slightly concerned) and told me that whatever I do I must aim to be world class. My brother taught me how to paint when I was 14 or 15. My cousins and my brother used to draw from an early age so I learnt a lot from them. My friends always support my choices. And I trust myself so I trust and support my own choices.
The family…
My mom has more of the creativity. She designs and sews tailor-made African-style clothing. My dad likes factual, scientific information and he’s a natural teacher. So where my mom would try something new, my dad would read something new. I guess I have a bit of both, but I'm a lot more into doing. My eldest brother took the medical route like my dad. My other brother drew and painted in school, and today he’s a hugely talented hip-hop producer and journalist. My younger sister is studying law and I reckon she has something creative about her, which is still unknown to me.

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Obstacles…
No physical obstacles. The only one I can think of is recognising the truth about myself and creating my truest path. For me this means recognising and cutting out the unimportant distractions and working on the things I want – the constructive things. Another early obstacle as a young artist is being too impressionable and being easily influenced by things that don’t reflect what you’re about. You stray off your way doing someone else’s work and that leads to frustration or frustrated expression. It’s like your head spins and you want to do everything, follow every trend, imitate all the big names of the time and keep up with whatever is cool. That’s not me.
Most important lesson…
That my emotions are my most important source of information.
Best advice received…
My dad said I should always close the windows of my car when I’m parked in the garage so that spiders, bees and rats don’t get in. They distract you when you’re trying to drive.

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Collections…
I collect podcasts and music of many genres. I collect fashion magazines. I’ve started collecting books on art. I collect these things because I like them. Let me tell you what I’d like to get: All the Sesame Street episodes from the 70s to the 90s. Please.

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Shake off creative-block…
By drawing and looking outside at the trees and the sky. But I’d like to add that I don’t search for inspiration, references or influences. These things are inevitable.
Favourite things…
I like the mountain passes and the midlands of KwaZulu Natal – so green, so full of life and peaceful fields. I like looking at pictures and imagining Stellenbosch and the Garden Route towns. I like the forests of Dolder, just on the edge of Zurich, Switzerland (although there are a lot of slugs there and only a few birds). My favourite magazine is Monocle and I hope they cover more on Africa and South America. I also like fashion magazines and National Geographic for their photography. I like books on the history of art.

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Websites…
Music sites where I can download podcasts and discover new music. I go to different ones each time. I don’t spend a lot of time online.
To relax…
I draw and play a recently downloaded podcast. Or I read something interesting. I like reading interviews and listening to interviews. Or I lay on my back, cross my feet and put my hands behind my head.

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Inspiring people…
Anyone from Jim Henson to Steve Jobs, Tyra Banks, Patrice Motsepe and Keith Haring. Anyone who is living their true expression. Artists, musicians, sportspeople, businesspeople, scientists, academics, mothers and so on.
Immediate future…
More shows and exhibitions in various locations. More fulfilling work. More travel.

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The dream…
To travel the world, live my true expression and achieve success.
Advice to wannabes…
Try it and if it feels good you’re doing the right thing.
Continue reading...

Tuesday 13 October 2009

5.2 / In the mix / K-Tron

What: DJ, club promoter and writer
Where: London, United Kingdom
Websites: More Light More Power and likeDisneyland

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History…
I've done a lot of things since I moved to London. One of the most high-profile things I've been is a club promoter but I'm also a musician, a DJ and I do some writing, lots of creative stuff basically, that I do to various degrees of success and popularity. At the moment I'm just launching a new project with my band More Light More Power.

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I come from Leicester, from a messy council estate in the middle of nowhere. I started off in a very different place to the whole club scene and the sort of circles I move around in now. It wasn't a particularly arty or bohemian place. There were lots of nice, genuine people, but there wasn't much access to culture there. I eventually made my way down to London and got into the club scene. I was into experimental music and really weird art projects in Leicester but there was no context to it. When I started doing my first serious bands in London I did a project where we had live dancing girls, a lot crazy art stuff going on and the music was very electronic.

The band scene at the moment is very diverse and playful with genre. When I first started performing in London however, it was a totally different scenario. The biggest band at the time was the Libertines and there wasn't the same context of all these unique, creative acts you have now. There was no crazy, experimental stuff really breaking through. That's why I got into clubs, which were more connected to the context of their own music. I started doing my own parties and worked with people who went on to do some great things like Stuart Semple.

I was lucky enough to meet Stuart in the beginning when we all moved to London from various places, we all separately had potential to do great things but hadn't really done anything. We were all going out to clubs and basically looking for each other, which when it did happen led to a lot of inspiration. We were sparking off each other, founding magazines and ended up forming a group. Being in clubs and doing my own parties seemed like the natural thing to do. I felt lucky. The first club I did went really well but it kind of fizzled out because the guy I did it with was a little crazy, like I am, and we were more interested in partying together than progressing in what we were doing. But then with the second club, a new collaboration, we struck gold with exactly the right thing at the right time. It was at the beginning of Nu Rave and there were all these amazing people who were still going out like the Super Super lot. I met some influential people and people who would later be influential who were part of the clientele of the club.

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There were all these amazing, cute looks, all these hot kids and a whole lot of crazy behaviour. We tried to embody the rave ideals of beauty, music for music's sake and fun for fun's sake – none of that Studio 54 elitism rubbish that people think makes a good fashion club. It's more about attitude. That's how it all began for me and it was the springboard to do other things.
Learning…
In terms of Djing, I've had a bit of a rough ride because everything we did to begin with was so DIY. When I first started Djing, although I was musical and understood music, I had no idea how to use the equipment and I had no money to go out and buy any equipment. It was also the early days of CD Djing and the equipment was more expensive and less sophisticated than it is now. It was a baptism of fire really. I started Djing at my club and when we got a massive profile and people started asking me to DJ. There was no genre in particular that we did. It was about reliving old favourites and mixing it all together. Now I'm moving on and am interested in using new technologies and interested in where Djing is going. I don't like getting stuck in the whole 'what's a real DJ' debate. If I use a laptop, I think that if people are dancing and it sounds good then that's all that's important.



I've been making music since I was really young and knew that I had to get out of Leicester because nothing was ever going to happen there. When I had my first band it was made up of all girls and people would go nuts for it. We looked great, were really weird and had great sounds but unfortunately in Leicester there's no serious outlet for it. We reached the top of our little tree and there was just nowhere to go from there. I didn't really want to go into academia but the only way I could afford to move to London was to go to university. I went to Goldsmith's, which is a really amazing university and I was on a great media and modern literature course but in the end it was just a pain in the ass – I had like a thousand books to read every week, I was doing the clubs, was out all night and then would have to spend my days trying to be a student. It was not the easiest thing nor exactly how I wanted it to be. But I met friends for life at Goldsmiths and read some great books but sometimes the material was so stale. At that level, doing a BA, you just do a lot of secondary research and regurgitate things. You're allowed to have an opinion but only when you've referenced about a thousand other people's opinions and I found that quite boring.
Right now…
My new band More Light More Power has some real potential and we've had a lot of underground success. I've had a great lifestyle out of it. I've travelled, played in amazing places but never had a proper record deal. For the moment, this is the project I want to take to the world commercially and conceptually. And I've got a new club project that's brewing but I don't want to mention too much about that yet. Watch this space for more. I'm also working with lots of people that are doing creative stuff. I do a lot of copywriting too and lots of behind the scenes stuff. I've written the foreward for a book (
the most high profile thing I've done) called Club Kids, which is about club culture. I was also been invited to perform poetry at the London Literature Festival. I take my writing more seriously than anything else but music's more of an outlet for it because there are a lot of lyrics involved. My talent is probably writing more than anything else. I write fiction and do a bit of writing for magazines and stuff like that. But it's more personal and I don't want to do it as a job. I've done a bit of journalistic stuff and as a journalist you get a brief, then do the research and sometimes you have to write some very flat stories like for a women's magazine or something. If you do it as a day job that's where you find yourself but writing's quite magical and I think lyrics are the pinnacle of magic.

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Family…
They were a bit unresponsive and disinterested in what I was doing when I was growing up. I didn't rebel against that but just got on with it. I got a guitar from my dad after about two years of hassling him for one. I had band practises on the other side of town but he'd never drive me there. I'd have to get two buses to the venue, carrying my amplifier, which weighed a ton. My family is kind of weird but now that they can see that I'm doing well, they're happy about it all. Now they're quite interested in what I do. I think I've got to where I am in spite of my family not because of them. We laugh about it now even though at the time it was quite frustrating. Their attitude was kind of like 'when you finish with that hobby maybe you can get a real job'. At the same time, my family was very hard to shock. They weren't uptight at all. My mum was in a band herself once, a 70s band, had a big afro and toured through Germany.
Pros and cons…
Sometimes you do really well financially and socially but sometimes there's a lot of pressure. Some people have a job, get paid a certain amount every month and have some structure to their days. I don't have that. Sometimes I do some cool stuff but I don't get paid for it, which is quite annoying. All the cons are to do with the lack of stability. The pros are obvious. I get to travel loads, meet amazing people and I've seen things most people can't even imagine. I've seen people at their lowest and at their absolute best. I've seen sights and stuff that you read about New York clubs in the 80s – the sex, the glamour and the egos, it's an exquisite experience. The stories I can tell just from the stuff I've seen makes me feel like I've lived two lifetimes already.

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Lessons…
People are the greatest resource and the greatest hindrance. I got things to work by understanding people and learning how to communicate. Everyone's got ideas and we need to collaborate. I learnt to really listen and to understand a wide range of people. Creative people are sometimes the weirdest people you'll ever meet. Some people are completely genius but are unable to articulate their ideas. I've learnt to tune into people and engage with them. There are some jobs where you don't have to interact with people. But clubs are quite sociable and you have to understand what makes people tick.

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Advice…
Jim Warboy was kind of a father to a lot of people, 90% of people on the scene. Not only did he teach us skills and facilitate others, he was a really approachable guy who taught us how to survive in some very bitchy environments and how to arm ourselves with technology knowledge to be able to build up your own little industries. He's so dedicated to helping others. He's incredibly respected and has made music for fashion shows, he's shown lots of people how to DJ, shown me how to DJ. There are lots of unsung heroes like that, the guys at the sidelines helping other people.

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Reinspiration…
When I feel uninspired it's not because of a lack of ideas, it's more a lack of motivation. A lot of people suffer from that. It happens when, say, I'm working really hard and the money's not great and the people aren't great. It goes like that in waves in clubs. But there'll be times when I'll invite someone to a party and it'll be one of their first ever parties. They would've just moved to London, like I did and they might only be about 17 or something. They'll arrive at the party and they'll say 'I feel like I belong here. This is what I want to do with my whole life' and they'll completely relax into themselves. That's what happened to me and that's what I think about when I'm feeling uninspired to get myself motivated again.
Relax…
I never do. I always kind of worry about doing things. I kind of lie and stare into space sometimes. Everything that is a hobby is also something I do for a reason. I watch a lot of movies but that's more out of interest than for relaxing. And I like a lot of crap American television.
Go back in time…
Maybe I would go back and put a bit more finesse into my outfits, not because they were ridiculous but maybe I should have worn pants or something like that, but I'm quite happy with everything else.

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Plans…
Musically, I want to get more gigs and deal action on the go. And I have a few club projects and some other projects in the pipeline…
Dream life…
I am living the dream… Sometimes it fluctuates and feels like I'm living the nightmare. It's so varied though. The other day I had my eyebrows dyed blonde and my hair dyed blue. And a week ago I was in a Slovakian forest running around with a camera.
Advice…
Be authentic, don't be creepy. Don't do it for the fame or the prestige because you'll end up in a strange, tragic, little world, not knowing what you really want to do. You have to really learn to be comfortable with yourself and care about people. It's a little corny but there are a lot of two-faced people, in the club scene in particular. People don't have to be like that and there are people who really care – that's one of the reasons the club scene is so popular. People crave human contact and if you have the balls to be yourself, people get really turned on by that and want to come down and party with you.
Continue reading...

Wednesday 7 October 2009

3.4 / Spitting images / Kjartan S Waaseth

What: Photo retoucher
Where: Oslo, Norway
Website: Layers

Kjartan Sebastian Waaseth

I grew up in the middle of Norway, in Tronhein and went to a photo school when I was 17 years old because I wanted to study photography. I was always interested in the arts before that. My parents were hippies and had all sorts of strange friends coming over to our house and a particularly influential one called Kjartan Slettemark. He was a brilliant artist (he passed away a few months ago) and a great source of inspiration when I was growing up.
Parents…
My father is an architect and my parents have always been interested in the arts. They're free-thinkers and have been very encouraging and supportive of me. I suppose my unconventional upbringing shaped my mind. I don't think in a 'square' way.

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Right now…
I do a bit of photography but I am mainly a retoucher and my retouching involves all sorts. Retouching is made up of manipulation, beauty retouching, creating abstract light effects and graphics (although I don't really do the graphic side of things).
Learning…
I leant everything after school. We had a few lessons in retouching but I didn't really learn that much. The things I know now are things that I picked up from other people. A guy called Grant Keats taught me a lot before he moved back to Australia a little while ago. There are also tutorials that I've done online, mainly Photoshop tutorials on Psdtuts+.
Free time, work, things…
It's all a bit of a melting pot. I do work-related things and personal stuff at the same time. There aren't strict boundaries. It's nice to work with different things. I enjoy working on my personal projects, then working on commercials and then coming back to what I was doing before. It's good to take your mind off work and similarly take a break from other projects. I really enjoy manipulating images and making surreal images and scenery.

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Pride and joy…
There was one commercial, which wasn't all that hard-core but it was the simplicity that made it cool. It was manipulating an image of a young girl standing on a beach. It was taken in a studio and I just manipulated three versions of the image so she has a different sized ice-cream in each. There's also another interesting job I did here for Norges Blindeforbund, an organisation for blind people and people with eye diseases. One of the pieces I did for them was to manipulate images so that people with normal vision could see a picture as a person with eye disease would see it, which was quite different and fun to work on.

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Self employed pros and cons…
I like the freedom to do what I want and manage my time in a way that suits me. I can have a coffee and chat any time I want to. I like working late into the night and can do that without anyone telling me to go home. The downside is that sometimes I struggle to get jobs and I have to work my arse off just to make enough money to make up for the times when I don't have work.

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In the future…
I've entertained the idea of going to New York. That would be quite cool but on the other hand I also want try out working in a commercial agency, which would mean that I wouldn't have to worry about chasing work.

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Kjartan Sebastian Waaseth
Best lesson…
Because of my background in photography, I've always had boundaries but after working in retouching I feel like I've freed my mind and I'm better at figuring out and creating different scenes.
Best advice…
Don't do drugs. Ha ha…
Reinspiration…
I have a big collection of manipulated images and I have them all filed under different categories and depending on which project I'm working on I can just refer to the one that is most suitable. I try out different things and use different images as inspiration.

Kjartan Sebastian Waaseth

Kjartan Sebastian Waaseth
To relax…
I go rock climbing. There are quite a few climbing sites in Norway. I like bouldering mostly, rock climbing without ropes. I know it might seem like a strange thing to do to chill out but it's a fun way to just relax and unwind my mind.
Plans…
My goal in my spare time is to evolve my work and to find new clients and promote my business. In the commercial world you get forgotten quite quickly so you have to keep promoting yourself.

Advice…
Most retouchers don't have a graphics backgrounds. It helps to understand photography and how light works. You have to spend a lot of time trying things out – lots of trial and error on your own, exploring what you want to do and which area you want to specialise in.
Dreams…
I would love to spend a few years sailing around the world. With my camera and my Mac. That's my biggest dream. I'd love to forget about my bills and commitments and let my mind just float away.
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