EMMA SOMPER CASTING
AMBER
Meet @amberjeanrowan. In her late teens, as she was just breaking into modeling, Amber developed alopecia and starting with a small patch at the back of her head, gradually she lost all of her hair. A decade later, looking to support others who were going through similar experiences, she founded the community @hairfreelife - a safe space for advice and conversation around hairloss. During our interview she recalled being sat in the make-up artist's chair and her eyebrows falling out.
“As much as I love walking around hair free, it’s great, it’s light, it’s lovely, I love wigs. They are an expression, they’re fun they’re great crack and you can play. I’ll never forget the first time I got a good wig; my life changed because at that time I needed it and it gave me that confidence to chat to that boy, be a part of that tribe and get involved. Just because you wear a wig does not mean you’re not accepting of your alopecia. You just make that choice on that day that you want to wear a wig.”
“As much as I love walking around hair free, it’s great, it’s light, it’s lovely, I love wigs. They are an expression, they’re fun they’re great crack and you can play. I’ll never forget the first time I got a good wig; my life changed because at that time I needed it and it gave me that confidence to chat to that boy, be a part of that tribe and get involved. Just because you wear a wig does not mean you’re not accepting of your alopecia. You just make that choice on that day that you want to wear a wig.”
ODILE
@Odilejordan is a Dutch born writer (of poetry among other things) and model living in London. Her favourite word - of course we had to ask - is the french 'ameliorer', meaning to make something better or more beautiful. Sat in her urban garden in North West London, it was easy to see why.
"I think poetry is going to become a lot more undefined than it has been. I think people will much less see it as a label or a category and much more as a form of expression that can really take any form. Especially with the way that people can share their stuff now without having to go through the official channels of publishing or having an agent or being signed or getting a deal or whatever. I would like to hear people say that you don't have to focus on money - it is not about selling your poetry book or some far away ideal of what poetry looks like, it's about writing poetry."
photo @tomchapman8 interview @katieservicebeauty
"I think poetry is going to become a lot more undefined than it has been. I think people will much less see it as a label or a category and much more as a form of expression that can really take any form. Especially with the way that people can share their stuff now without having to go through the official channels of publishing or having an agent or being signed or getting a deal or whatever. I would like to hear people say that you don't have to focus on money - it is not about selling your poetry book or some far away ideal of what poetry looks like, it's about writing poetry."
photo @tomchapman8 interview @katieservicebeauty
ROSE
We just had to meet conservationist and model @roseieellis. Despite the fact that her baboon research trip to Namibia has had to be put on ice, she was optimistic about the natural world's new normal:
“In terms of sustainability, I feel like lockdown took a lot of our choices away; going to just one shop a week, if something we needed wasn’t packaged in a way we would usually choose to buy it, there wasn’t much we could do about it. But then we just kind of have to remember that in other ways our impact on the world was definitely reducing. We didn’t go on holiday so our carbon footprint was down. Pollution levels were incredibly low. You can see views from city that you couldn’t see before. I think people started to realise that going outside was really special.”
Photo @tomchapman8 interview @katieservicebeauty
“In terms of sustainability, I feel like lockdown took a lot of our choices away; going to just one shop a week, if something we needed wasn’t packaged in a way we would usually choose to buy it, there wasn’t much we could do about it. But then we just kind of have to remember that in other ways our impact on the world was definitely reducing. We didn’t go on holiday so our carbon footprint was down. Pollution levels were incredibly low. You can see views from city that you couldn’t see before. I think people started to realise that going outside was really special.”
Photo @tomchapman8 interview @katieservicebeauty
JASMINE
We asked @jasminsehra whether illustration was a competitive world and this is what she said...
"You could say that but I don’t really think of it like that. I’ve kind of just stayed in my lane and do what I do and been so grateful for the things that come my way. I think everybody is unique in their style so, competition isn’t something you should see it as because really, if anything, I think we should hold together as a community.
Community is a big theme within my work. I create a lot of positive messages and positive artwork. I started this positivity series, quotes that I felt were relevant or that needed to be said and that touched on mental health and my own journey with mental health – and that really inspired me when it came to creating artwork that was purposeful. I wanted to create something that was really meaningful and that others could feel empowered by. A lot of people reach out to me through social media about them and it is crazy because you can see how impactful a piece of art can be."
photo @tomchapman8 interview @katieservicebeauty
"You could say that but I don’t really think of it like that. I’ve kind of just stayed in my lane and do what I do and been so grateful for the things that come my way. I think everybody is unique in their style so, competition isn’t something you should see it as because really, if anything, I think we should hold together as a community.
Community is a big theme within my work. I create a lot of positive messages and positive artwork. I started this positivity series, quotes that I felt were relevant or that needed to be said and that touched on mental health and my own journey with mental health – and that really inspired me when it came to creating artwork that was purposeful. I wanted to create something that was really meaningful and that others could feel empowered by. A lot of people reach out to me through social media about them and it is crazy because you can see how impactful a piece of art can be."
photo @tomchapman8 interview @katieservicebeauty
ALEX
Our first portrait in the rain (torrential) was an appropriately gothic setting for the hypnotically beautiful journalist, filmmaker and model @_alexandragenova_
“I don’t know if you had this but during lockdown, I was thinking about all the jobs that were actually essential and I saw the nurses and other workers who were keeping society running and I thought, is my trade vital to the world? I did just have a bit of an appraisal of what I’m covering and I decided I want to only focus on stories I really care about."
What kind of stories, we asked?
“One story I'm really interested in is seed keeping. There’s a massive monopoly on seeds in the way that they’re distributed by a handful of private companies, who patent them, thereby taking the autonomy away from the farmers. Especially in indigenous cultures, seed keeping is really important for food sovereignty.”
Photo @tomchapman8 interview @katieservicebeauty
“I don’t know if you had this but during lockdown, I was thinking about all the jobs that were actually essential and I saw the nurses and other workers who were keeping society running and I thought, is my trade vital to the world? I did just have a bit of an appraisal of what I’m covering and I decided I want to only focus on stories I really care about."
What kind of stories, we asked?
“One story I'm really interested in is seed keeping. There’s a massive monopoly on seeds in the way that they’re distributed by a handful of private companies, who patent them, thereby taking the autonomy away from the farmers. Especially in indigenous cultures, seed keeping is really important for food sovereignty.”
Photo @tomchapman8 interview @katieservicebeauty
OLIVIER
Meet creative director @oliviergeraghty whose creative agency @o.g_studios has enjoyed a head-spinning pivot into the virtual world during lockdown. We caught up with him (and gleaned a few pearls of wisdom) outside his flat in East London.
"Failing has allowed me to push and strive harder. I have failed many, many times. No one’s going to remember that you failed in five, ten years. What they’ll remember is that you tried. You may have failed miserably but you just keep moving. You constantly keep going."
Photo @tomchapman8 interview @katieservicebeauty
"Failing has allowed me to push and strive harder. I have failed many, many times. No one’s going to remember that you failed in five, ten years. What they’ll remember is that you tried. You may have failed miserably but you just keep moving. You constantly keep going."
Photo @tomchapman8 interview @katieservicebeauty