Bora Aksu F/W 2024 backstage

Photographed by Zuzu Valla for Anon Magazine

stacy michuki by zuzu valla

ME FOR VOGUE BY ZUZU VALLA

Zuzu Valla

Zuzu Valla

https://www.instagram.com/zuzu.valla/

Azura for the character meme

.....

You are the best. (spoilers ahead) ALRIGHTY THEN LET'S GET TO IT!!

My otp for them: 

Subaki! (no judgements) And Felicia! And Mozu! I literally can't choose between them! They're all OTP's!

My brotp for them: 

Corn! 🌽

Any other ships: 

Jakob is okay! Those are the only ones that I can think of off the top of my head!

Their best friend: 

🌽🌽🌽

My favorite nickname for them: 

Zuzu

My favorite AU of them: 

Au where she grows up in Valla, with 🌽 and 🐟 (Corrin and Lilith) as her loving cousins! And Arete is there and her father is there too! And Mikoto is BEST AUNT™ and she's actually happy and-

My favorite outfit they wear: 

Her Nohr dance outfit! 🎶Sing with me a song of Conquest and Fate🎶

Defining color: 

Blue. Duh.

Would I date them:

Nope. I would not! But she is very beautiful! 

First impression: 

So I first saw her on heroes, she was one of my fist five stars (specifically her performing arts version) and my only impression was that she was really cool and that I liked her special art a lot!

Current impression: 

She's babie. And edgy. And I love her. And she always reminds me of this little song that goes like- YOU ARE THE OCEAN'S GREY WAVES. DESTINED TO SEEK LIFE BEYOND THE-

Hogwarts House: 

Griffindor. Change my mind.

Which Pokemon starter they’d be: 

Galar: Sobble. All regions: Still Sobble. Or maybe Popplio, I can see her liking Primarina!

Thank you for the ask! Feel free to send more! (I always love talking about Zuzu)

Blog Input 2/20/20

After researching different photographers from Europe, three stood out to me. Zuzu Valla is a European photographer from Slovakia, but lived in England with her family. Her work consists mostly of photos of women with them being the subject. They all consist of a close up composition of a woman, sometimes two women, that fills the majority of the frame. The use of light in each photograph is intentional to emphasize the beauty of the woman in the picture. With some photos, there is just enough light to see the outline of the woman’s facial features for the viewer to be able to recognize that a person is there, while with others, the light brings out the red lipstick the woman might be wearing or it emphasizes the side of the woman’s face a strip of bright light. A collection that stood out to me is her “In the Bath” collection that is full of photos of women in murky bath water with flowers surrounding them. With each of the photos, it is evident the emotion that each subject portrays and how raw and real each is. It draws the viewer in to wonder “why?” with so many of the photos.

https://www.lensculture.com/zuzu-valla

Elizabeth Koning is a photographer who traveled all around Europe and used her photography to take the viewer on a journey and to retell the stories of art history. In her “La Pappilion” collection, I found it interesting that she used a woman as the subject but did not use the light to her advantage to emphasize the features of the woman. In the last three photos of the collection, Koning must have used photoshop to place multiple butterflies onto the photos, and at times over the face of the subject. After seeing those pictures for the first time, I was confused as to why she would take a beautiful picture of a woman sitting on the beach with a basket and put butterflies to cover it and distract the viewer from the subject, but obviously Konging had some intention with doing so.

https://www.elizabethkoning.com/collection

Guillaume d´Hubert is a photographer who focuses more on black and white photography. A collection of his that immediately drew my eye was his “Black Crop” collection. It looks as though he took black and white photographs that used one human subject per picture and placed circles over different parts of their bodies and made some circles a slightly underexposed black and white, while some other circles were very overexposed and mostly white with just enough dark grey for the viewer to see the silhouette of the subject. His use of the circles in this collection made each picture more interesting for the viewer. While each subject is doing a abstract pose, the use of the circles draws the viewer’s eyes all over the photograph. I looked through this collection for a long time and every time I would go back to look at it again, I would see something I didn’t see before.

https://www.lensculture.com/guillaume-d-hubert

Overall, with photographing this week, I found it interesting to adjust all the setting with the shutter speed and ISO in order to get the type of photograph I was picturing in my mind. I went into the city with a few friends and it was fun to find spots where the light was light enough for the pictures of to develop the right way and to get a good composition with some parts of the photo being still and the others moving (i.e. cars going by). Some difficulties I had were getting the right settings on my camera. I am definitely still learning when it comes to manually changing the settings to the right thing for what I’m shooting at, but it has slowly gotten easier. When photographing this time, I found myself much more aware of the composition of the photo and was more particular with what should be in each frame.

The Last Outfit by Zuzu Valla https://www.artlimited.net/40158/art/image-the-last-outfit/en/11722171 https://www.artlimited.net/40158/art/image-the-last-outfit/en/11722171

Alice in purgatory photography by Zuzu Valla published on @hufmagazine (https://hufmagazine.com/alice-in-purgatory)

Alice in Purgatory is a dark twist on the classic tale of Alice in Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland took place in England during the Victorian era, where most were Christians. Thus introducing the 7 deadly sins in a colorful way within the characters. Lust for the White Queen, Wrath and Greed for the Red Queen, Envy and Gluttony for Alice, Sloth for the Caterpillar, and Pride for the Mad Hatter.

Photographer: Zuzu Valla

Makeup: Blanca Diosdado

Stylist: Natasha Cunha

Assistant stylist: Anderson Dwayne Samuel

Model: Isobel Dodd

Fashioning Our History Editorial by Zuzu Valla and Warren Reilly Published by @topposters_mag @toppostersmag @tp_covers_portraits @tp_covers_fashion July 2021 . Photography: @zuzu.valla Wig Design: @wr.designs_ Model: @jaydeshenise Make up: @jayshencosmetics Location: @brentmuseumandarchives @brentcultureservice @brentcouncil Assistant: @rsrillustration (at London Borough of Brent) https://www.instagram.com/p/CR3y4_ONQq_/?utm_medium=tumblr

Marta Kochanek

https://www.martakochanek.com/

I found Kochanek’s pieces very interesting and beautiful. I thought that her ability to change her up the focus of her photos was incredible. At a distance it seems as though her pieces are very random and that her interests are vastly different but the way I saw it was more along the lines of different people, different times and different places are all going to tell a different story or hold their own secrets. Even the pictures that are of dancers striking different poses, each seem to face their own struggles or are staged by Kochanek to tell their own story. Her use of mood lighting is also very beautiful and has been what has caught my eye the most with her photos. People are so interesting and staging scenes with people is something that I would like to try doing.

Zuzu Valla

https://www.zuzuvalla.com/

I love how Valla mainly focuses on women as her subjects. I think women hold so much beauty and elegance while also maintaining some semblance of mystery, especially noticeable in Valla’s photos. Half of her photos have this whisper of softness and elegance which are words that many use in reference to women. While others hold an eeriness and mystery to them that can be seen as a sense of duality to women or at least the women in the picture. The smallest touches really do make the biggest differences. From the direction of a person’s head or gaze. Using the combination of nature and women which can both have the duality of being beautiful and dangerous was fascinating to see on camera.

Matilde Pernille

https://matildepernille.no/

I feel as though the best way to describe Pernille’s work would be unique. Quite honestly weirds me out a little lol, like the piece she has on body parts. She honestly thinks of things from such a creative and unique standpoint. The way she sets up her work is is beautiful and it seems to be that no matter what topic she chooses to focus on she adds her own creepy/special spin on it. Her portraits were something that I found most interesting because it seemed like something that would be the simplest in general but may have been the hardest to add her creative style to but she accomplished it with such ease and in such a way that I have never seen portraits to be done before. I wonder how these types of effects can be done through editing and would like to learn how to make them seem as seamless as Pernille does.

My biggest challenge with this shoot has been finding the perfect place to shoot. The area I live in happens to not have much night life and trying to stage scenes has proven to be much harder than it seemed. It has been fun experimenting with the bulb feature on the camera and getting a better handle on how to properly use it. I feel as though I have a tendency to be moved more so by the lighting of pictures because i feel as though that can completely make or break a photo. The colors in the photo also have a tendency to attract my eye more than anything.

Week 5

European Photographers:

Laurent Baheux: https://www.laurentbaheux.com/en Laurent Baheux is a French photographer born in 1970. He is an animal advocate known for his black and white photography of animals and wildlife. He actively supports the anti-poaching initiative and habitat protection and preservation. I really admire his support for these ideas and his ability and willingness to support them through his work and photography. The way he is able to use the black and white effect in his animal photography really shows the natural raw beauty of the various animals and their respective surroundings. The black and white also makes the photos much more intense. His photos make the viewer feel like they are right there, face to face with the wild animal. It makes the viewer sympathetic for the animals and want to help the cause.  I am an animal lover, advocate, and vegetarian and his galleries definitely warranted an emotional reaction from me upon viewing. I really appreciate his perspective, activism and passion for what he does.  I also admire Baheux’s ability to get these sharp images of the wild animals in their natural setting, as it must be dangerous to in such close quarters with the wild animals and that is not something many people would be able to execute and accomplish.

Zuzu Valla: https://www.zuzuvalla.com/ Zuzu Valla was born in Slovakia and grew up there. She now resides in the UK. Valla came into photography accidentally in her late twenties and now her work has been featured in many famous magazines and online publications, such as Vogue Italia, National Geographic and Kent Bride Magazine. I enjoy Valla’s photography style and subject matter. She describes her style as “bringing together sadness, mystery, tenderness, and fragility all in women’s body language”. Her photos focus on women and create a soft and intimate mood. The color palette in her body of work in very muted and subdued and helps Valla achieve her signature style and soft atmosphere. Her style is very unique and distinctive and her passion and lust for life is apparent in each photo. Her compositions highlight women and she portrays them in such a beautiful and tender way. Valla’s photography tells a story. Her galleries feature various women getting ready for ballet, dressed up in the car, in the bathtub surround by beautiful florals, as well as close up portraits. Valla’s work evokes a sense of nostalgia.

Dasha Matrosova https://www.dashafoto.com/ Dasha Matrosova (known as DASHA) is a fine artist and fashion photographer from Belarus. She was the only photographer chosen to represent Belarus at the EXPO 2020 in Dubai. Several of her photographic works have been published for IPA, PX3 and MIFA. Her work is very modern and it features and utilizes contemporary art trends. While she is a young artist, her work has been featured on many magazine covers as well as a multitude of advertisements for large well-known companies. DASHA’s work is very popular for advertising due to its uniqueness, vibrancy and ability to catch the eye of the viewer with interesting content. Her work stands out from other advertisements. DASHA works on creative advertising for shoes and clothes brands, jewelry companies, beauty brands, etc. Her photographs are mostly portrait style with very apparent influence from her fine arts background, as she often likes to mix both styles. She is not afraid to use color and many of her photos contain bright body/face paint or other kinds of body embellishment (headdresses, masks, jewelry, floral arrangements).  DASHA’s work looks and feels alive.

What have been your successes and challenges during this week's shoots and assignments? This week I went with Corrine to the Art Museum at night to photograph around that area. I think this shoot was more of a success than last week because we went to an area with more variety of places and subjects to shoot. One challenge was capturing the panning shot. I did not do enough research on this type of photo before going to shoot and my attempts just turned out too blurred even when I panned the camera quite slow while moving with the subject. I will have to read up on this more before the last night shoot next week.

How did you feel about the critique you received in class? I thought it was very interesting. I found it interesting mostly because when Chereef picked his favorite (of my 6 photos) to critique, he actually picked the one I was most hesitant about. It was the photo with the dark and shadowy doorway, which might actually have been my least favorite because it turned out much darker than I anticipated. This just reminded me how you never really know how people will react to and interpret your work, and everyone has different taste and likes/dislikes.

Describe how it feels to begin to think like a photographer? I found myself experimenting more this week and coming up with new angles and perspectives to shoot. We ended up shooting for about an hour and a half the one night and it went by very fast. I’m starting to relax and not focus on every single shot being perfect. Many of the ones that I took this week that weren’t “perfect” and had a little blur ended up being my favorites from the shoot.

What are you looking at? What are you finding interesting? What details are becoming important to you? I am finding night photography as a whole interesting. It is not something I have really tried before since I haven’t had a good camera capable of sufficiently capturing it. It is definitely something I will continue to try to do after this assignment/class because the city lights are so breathtaking at night. This assignment has also encouraged me to further explore the city.

class 5

Julia Fullerton-Baton is a German photographer. She photographs many people in very dramatic ways. Some of her photographs have to do with recreating history and showing injustices in the world. A lot of her portraits feel very ghostly and are taken at night with a dark and eerie background. The composition of the portraits tend to have the subject in the center of the frame, focusing on them. The background is not in focus so this means she used a wide aperture. In her gallery there are more than a few photos that contain the same styles. I like how she has mini series of a concept that let you see more than just one picture incorporating it. The subjects in the photos always have a very serious expression. It is almost like how people used to not smile for pictures. I like how Julia captures life in her photographs. They make you think more about what is happening than just a regular picture of it.

https://www.juliafullerton-batten.com/personal.php?&gallNo=4&catNo=2

Zuzu Valla is a photographer from England. Her in the bath series is very unique. When I first saw the series I did not think that it would be very diverse. Zuzu found a way to make the images very different and unique to themselves. To do this she put the subjects in different clothes. Some dark and black with others wearing light colors. Zuzu used both men and women in this series. In most of the images the subject is taking up the entire frame. The image is very close to them showing details of flowers in the water and the clothing. The expressions of the people in the photos are very serious. I think Zuzu did this to make the photos look dream like. Some people in the photos have their eyes closed backing up the idea of a dream.

https://www.zuzuvalla.com/inthebath

 Matilde Pernille is a photographer from Norway. Her photographs are very abstract. She started taking pictures when she was 11 and then at 16 got a DSLR camera and started taking more portraits and serious photos. Looking at her series Epoke, I noticed it is a self portrait series. I like this because it shows how much she can change a picture and the style without changing the person. All of the photos in this series also has the subject in the center for the composition. There is not much room on either side of the person and they mostly take up the entire frame. All of the backgrounds are out of focus and emphasize her. The main thing I like about this series is how creative Matilde was with creating the different elements of each photo. One has face paint and another her hair is a nest. It reminds me of a child playing and having them get photographed in the middle of it.

https://matildepernille.no/epoke

This week a challenge I encountered was panning. It was hard to keep the car in the frame I was trying to pan. A success that I had was a better overall understanding of night photography. I want to try to photograph water at night like the picture of the ship we saw in class. The critique in class was informative. It was said that I should have continued the pattern of the two plant pictures. I was thinking that would be a nice series however the assignment said we needed leading line pictures, centered pictures, and rule of thirds so I was trying to follow the assignment. Giving a critique was new and something that I will get better at as we go on. I am looking at water pictures during the night this week. I think it is interesting how the water moves the light. The details that are becoming important to me are keeping the camera still while still getting the movement of light. Last week I moved the camera a lot in order to get the light to move. Now I am trying the opposite. 

Christopher Jobson 

#Repost @darkbeautymag ・・・ Full Series – bit.ly/2CeNTce Photographer: Zuzu Valla @zuzu.valla Designer: Ia London @ia_london Hair: Electric Hairdressing @electric_london, L’Oréal Professionnel @lorealpro Makeup: Lan Nguyen-Grealis @lanslondon Nails: Little Ondine @littleondineus Models: Zoë Kezia @zoekezia @ Oxygen Models @oxygen.models, Mrs. V @themodeledit @greymodelagency , Ivy Watson @ivywatsonn, Amelia Kearney @ameliakearney @ Daniel Model Management @danielmodelmgmt, Alice @ Named Models @namedmodels, Alex B. @alexb244 @ Grey Model Agency @greymodelagency, Feriel Moulaï @realferiel @ Dominique Models @dominiquemodels, Agnès Tassel @atassel @ Grey Model Agency @greymodelagency Project: London Fashion Week @londonfashionweek #DarkBeauty #DarkBeautyMag #DarkBeautyX #fashion #photography (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvFC403HlCf/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=hg4kem0yhaa0

Weekly Blog;)

Hi! As I continue to photograph night photography I faced some challenges and successes. At first, I had a hard time figuring out what night photography was all about. Putting my camera on the right setting to me was hard. I still do not know my cameras setting very well yet, so it took me a few to figure out the settings. Some of my successes consisted of moving my camera back and forth to create many interesting photographs. I enjoyed taking pictures of moving cars or neon lights which create a very cool streak of light across the photograph. I believed my critique was spot on. Corrine was very diligent and descriptive with my critique and she did an amazing job. By photographing night photography, I have started to feel like a photographer. This is because it is not just an ordinary picture, the low shutter speed creates lines across the image if you move your camera. After taking some of my pictures I was very proud of myself. It really looks as if I was an actual photographer because of these interesting images that look very diligent. After taking the first few night images I began thinking like a photographer. While I walked down Main Street in Manayunk, I began seeing bright lights and everything moving around me different. I would change my shutter speed and the darkness to make sure the light on my image would pop. I began thinking how I could get the best picture and which lights will make the best image. I found it interesting that once you got a hang of the photographs, I was almost a pro at figuring out where I could take the best photograph. The details that became most interesting to me are to move my camera in some ways to see the different photographs that could come out. 

The European photographer Matilde Pernille started taking pictures from the compact camera her father bought her family at only eleven years old. Since then her photography has blossomed. When she turned 16 she was gifted with a DSLR and from this day forward she began taking portraits. She then continued her photography skills at the Norwegian photography school and graduated in 2014. I admire Matilde’s work so much because I love how unique it is. It is so different from any other photographer's work. Matilde edits her pictures so that an eye is in a mouth with a tear coming from it. My personal favorite in the picture is someone's foot, but Matilde edited it so a high heel is coming from it. In addition, the logic behind Matilde’s work is the social pressure that many young boys and girls feel. Matilde is using her own personal past experience of not feeling like you have a flat stomach or the perfect clothes as a reason for her work. She feels as if she now has a voice and is using that for her work. Her main message to get across people is that everyone is human and her work describes that exactly. https://www.dodho.com/fake-matilde-pernille/

The Slovakian photographer Zuzu Valla is able to catch the beauty of women in every photograph she takes. Zuzu's first encounter with a camera was in 2011 and she has been very into photography ever since. Zuzu is most known for her collection of photographs taken of women in a milk, water bath. After a dreary day of Zuzu walking home, all she had envisioned was herself in a nice bath soaking in lavender oil. This began her putting together photographs of models and flowers for her signature bath tub collection. I admire Zuzu’s photographs because it truly brings out the beauty in women and tells a story. In the bathtub photos, I love the flowers next to the models because they give a dreary feel just as the models faces do as well. Furthermore, I have been dancing since I was two years old and the images she took of little girls in their dancewear hits home. I think it is very unique that she really only takes picture of women and wants every woman to feel their natural beauty. This screams women empowerment, which I adore about Zuzu.  https://www.zuzuvalla.com/women  https://www.dodho.com/in-the-bath-by-zuzu-valla/

From the moment I saw Deborah Roffel’s work I felt a story. Her work stood out to me immensely. Deborah is a photographer from the Netherland’s and photographs Evgeniy Levchenko who is a male who she met while photographing his football club. One of her first shoots with him consisted of a horse whom she had looked for that could lay down, sit and prance on command. Although Evgenivy had no prior practice with horses, you could tell not just from the pictures that the horse Jauke and him had a special connection. I admire Deborah’s work because of my love for animals. When I look at the picture I see love, power and respect. I think the pictures are so beautiful and he is a lovely model. In the pictures you will observe him hugging the horse and the horse putting his head on Evgenivy’s body. This moment is so pure and touching. Deborah had worked with Evgenivy as her model since 2007 for most of her work.       https://www.dodho.com/deborah-roffel-the-beauty-of-the-tension-between-the-static-and-the-dynamic/