Zuzu Valla as pictured in the first photo is an inspirational Slovakian UK based photographer. Her work inspires so I was honored to speak to her about her photography career and what she has achieved thus far. Particularly inspiring is her point of view, heart and eye.
Her start in photography began when she moved to London from Slovakia and had a desire to take pictures to share with loved ones in Slovakia. At this point she was using a phone camera to take photos but found that she kept having to change the phones for better picture quality
She then bought a camera after her sister suggested that she should. This led to her waking up at 4am to take photos of the sunset. She started to figure out what niche of photography she preferred. She experimented with landscape and animal photography to see what she preferred.
Then she tried taking photos of her friend in the bath and liked it. She realised that she liked the female form though she had never felt womanly herself. She found out that she likes bodies that are unique and thinks that different body types are inspiring.
She has photographed those with disabilities for high fashion and this interest started as a result of her school teacher not liking her art. The affect it had on her was it gave her dissatisfaction about her work and this paired with her realisation that most celebrate the same ideal of body perfection (and beauty) made her realise that disabled models have been forgotten and overlooked because no one wants to see someone who is disabled as it raises certain feelings within. Zuzu has found that she wants to explore the feelings her work invokes in her. She doesn’t understand why we can’t show the young generation that disability is a part of life. She would like to wake up to a world where it is normal to see disability in magazines . She would like to see it being depicted as a normal part of life.
From the beginning of her 12 year career till now she has always chosen different types of models with reference to their body types and abilities. She dislikes that there are some who only shoot disabled models only when it is in trend.
Her greatest achievement is a piece of work for Vogue Portugal (which saw the editor give her free reign). Also she cites a mock Vogue cover (see image two above) by her as chosen by Edward Enninful in a Vogue cover challenge competition as one of her greatest achievements. The five winning proposed cover images as picked by the British Vogue editor-in-chief were shared by him on his personal Instagram page.
These wins taught her that her art teacher from school had been wrong. This boosted her confidence.
Her inspiration for her photography is people. She is inspired by hairstylists: big hair and different hairstyles. She has also found that she is continually inspired when in London.
With reference to her plans work wise for the near future she wants to work with more disabled people. In addition to this, she also wants to work more with more fashion designers and shoot things like lookbooks. If she could shoot any brand campaign it would be Moschino under the helm of Jeremy Scott was there. Despite his departure from the fashion house, she thinks it is the brand that she most identifies. Another brand she loves is Bora Aksu. She thinks his clothes are so romantic.
Her ultimate dreams are to change the world and to shoot a Vogue cover because Vogue is the leader that others follow.
Although she believes there are some social media accounts that have a bad influence, she likens her social media to a big portfolio that you can use to promote your work. With reference to fashion photography in magazines she likes the diversity and is hoping that it stays.
Her pictures are her therapy. She shares that there is a sadness about her work that she tries to cover. Her childhood wasn’t very easy and she tries to cover the sadness with reference to that with colours.
Zuzu Valla inspires and her work is worth keeping track of.
Follow her at @zuzu.valla.
Images courtesy of Zuzu Valla.