PHOTOGRAPHER
NADINE OTTAWA
Can you remember when you first held a camera?
When I was a school kid around the age of 7.
Can you tell me an iconic photographer whose work you got very fascinated by? — What did you feel when looking at their images?
There are some that influenced my work: Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Arthur Elgort, Mario Sorrenti and of course Peter Lindbergh. I love their vision of a woman and the way how they worked with simple or natural light. The pictures are clear and profound, so much more than fashion images. Portraits of a strong women.
Do you think the “male gaze" is a myth?
No, in my opinion you can feel this male gaze in the work of certain male fashion photographers. I think its a different approach.
What was your first fashion shoot?
It was a test shoot when I was an assistant in the photo studio of Swiss Annabelle Magazine some time ago.
What do you love most about the Fashion Industry?
I love fashion because its such an important part of culture and art. And what I find even more fantastic about it, is the way how fashion enables people to express themselves and to communicate with others. I also enjoy the team work a lot, to have a great day and work together for the best result.
What do you most hate about Fashion Industry?
Sadly there are many things in the last 2 years that I started to not like about this industry, first of all the unsustainability - not only of how badly things are produced, but also the unbearable amount of collections that overrun us in all these seasons. The idolization of social media stars in the fashion industry, leads in my option to the fact that people are not creative anymore regarding their style, everything seems to be ready made and imitateable. Models and also photographers that have a huge amount of social media followers are clear in competitive advantage. And not to forget the power of advertisers that influence the way how editorials are shot, there is not much space left for creativity and it reminds more of shooting advertisement.
Statistics show that only 1 in 10 of the big money jobs i.e. womenswear- beauty and perfume campaigns are shot by women. Is there just no qualified female fashion photographers out there?
Absolutely not! In the last years there are more and more very talented female photographers what I think is just great, but its still a very male oriented business, what makes it harder for women. I also think that many of the male photographers are able to travel and build their career because of their supporting women back home looking after the family. The other way round is still very difficult as our reality still is quite traditional regarding gender rolls, what maybe leads to the situation that not many women focus on their career as this means to sacrifice time for their family and kids. In this regard there is still much space for improvement.
One says it takes 10’000 hours to become a master of a craft, how long in hours/days/years did it take you to make a living?
I started to work as a photographer after 1,5 years of assisting.
Who is your female fashion image maker icon and who is your the one to watch?
Icon: Louise Dahl-Wolfe and Today: Cass Bird.
What makes you feel comfortable on set?
The team and good music.
How important is your team?
Very important.
What do you say about the charge that all fashion photography is predominantly sexist?
I don't think so that it can be generalized, it depends very much on the specific images, but yes unfortunately a lot of what you see is sexist.
There is a big surge of feminism at the moment - do you think that will affect Fashion Photography?
I think so, the decade of the over-stylized imagery that we still saw around 10 years ago is over. There are so many great photographers that have a very natural, colorful style - full of emotion and credibility, and they finally go back to work on film only. Gladly the over-use of photoshop is only seen in some ads nowadays..
When I look at your work, I really love your shoot of Veroniek. What is your favorite shoot?
My favorite shoot is the Pina Bausch inspired story with Nadja Giramata. Everything shot on film and with daylight only. I love the movement of the images.
What qualities do you value in an agent or booker?
To really believe in the work of their talents, understand them and have a personal relationship with them.
What is the most valuable piece of advice you were ever given and what advice would you have wished for earlier on in your career?
The most valuable advise I got was how important it is to be a director when you are shooting, to keep everything in focus. That means not only the model, but the clothes are very important, too and of course the interaction with the team.
