LY (Lucy Yun). Tell us about who you are.

IM (Issha Marie). My name is Issha Marie. I am [currently] a Vancouver-based visual artist, and a fine art and commercial photographer, dealing mostly with food, high concept still life, and some fashion.

LY. What creative projects do you do on your own time?

IM. It’s funny — I’ve shied away from this era for much of my visual arts career, even when I was an art student — but I am now very much exploring the Dutch Renaissance in my work! There is something about the overtly lush and saturated colours of the old-world still life that really speak to me at the moment. The symbolism and the visual metaphors are like cherries on top of a cake for me; the Dutch Masters really played with that, especially in the vanitas paintings. When I was an art student, and up until about a year ago or so, I found this era of art to be quite contrived and stuffy, but I am embracing its traditions and finding ways to decolonize eurocentric art practices to put forward my own voice and my stories as a person of colour exploring her heritage and her family’s past.

LY. Where do you find inspiration from when you create your work?

IM. I have an extensive library of artist mono graphs and niche magazines that I find myself poring over when I am faced with an assignment or a flash of an idea that I am itching to shoot. My physical library is my old-school Pinterest. It is very, very easy to get caught up in the dangerously pervasive nature of the world of social media and the images of today’s contemporary photographers that pepper the stream; people’s work really starts to look similar to one another’s on Instagram feeds. It is very important to take a step back and look at the past for inspiration on how to innovate in today’s market; for me, those years prior to the 2000’s were the golden ages of innovation in visual media. There was no social media - only galleries, publications, television.

LY. What tools do you rely on in your day-to-day work?

IM. Besides my camera and studio lights, my Wextensive collection of props. It drives my partner crazy; I have amassed a vast collection of what looks like trash to everyone else: dried florals, a couple of tumbleweeds, dried seaweed, seashells, rocks, crystals, ceramics, crinkled foils and plastic — anything that sparks my imagination when it comes to adding texture and interesting light to photographs.

LY. What are the most challenging thing you’re facing  as a freelancer?

IM. Honestly, it’s my lack of social media marketing skills and lack of Instagram clout. The freelancer really relies heavily on the look of one’s feeds these days, and the Instagram algorithm that puts the most-liked photos on the top of people’s feeds ensures that photographs from people like me whose number of likes do not compare to those of the giant IG superstars virtually gets unseen. I have to work three times as hard to keep producing content to get those numbers and that level of viewership up, but it’s honestly overkill, and can lead to burnouts in creativity. I find I have to distance myself from that world though, and work on my own pace and just release content when I have content to release.

LY. How do you keep motivated to meet tight deadlines?

IM. Ooooof. Hahahaha! I am the queen of procrastination. I always have been. But if the deadline is really dire, I put on a comfort show in the background and park myself in front of the computer to edit away, sometimes eschewing the need to eat unless my stomach absolutely puts up a fight I cannot ignore [read: angry growling, or when I start to get faint].

LY. Have you experienced a creative block? If so, how did you manage to overcome?

IM. Too many times! Sometimes, all it takes is a lengthy break from creating anything instead of forcing anything out of yourself so that when you do get a flash of inspiration, you are rejuvenated to create again! Do something extremely different from the art of creating. I like to read, immerse myself in a show or a movie, or go out with friends. Oftentimes, when I am itching to shoot but don’t necessarily have the ideas or the creative spark, I go back to the darkroom to print photographs from negatives I already shot, or take out the ol’ analogue camera and shoot a bunch of interesting textures or derelict structures.