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The Visual Narrations of Selah Marie

Brooke Nicholson | June 11, 2020

Topics: fashion, modeling, photographer, photography, portrait photography, Selah Marie

Richmond portrait photographer Selah Marie started out as a model, but it was only when she got behind the camera that she truly found her calling in life.

You never know what you’ll fall into. Even if you have a clear goal for what you want to do, things can happen that lead you in a different direction entirely. For Richmond-based photographer Selah Marie, this was definitely the case. When she realized modeling might not be her calling, she tried stepping behind the camera instead and found that it came naturally for her. The results were enough to make her forget about her original goal of fashion modeling for good.

“I always had a camera, ever since I was younger, and I’ve always taken pictures. But I didn’t find it to be my passion until 2015,” she explains. “I guess when I used to watch America’s Next Top Model and stuff like that, I wanted to be a model. But when I got in front of someone else’s camera, that went… not how I expected it to go. After looking at the images of myself, I was like, ‘Oh no, I can’t do this.’”

Marie found that her lifelong dream wasn’t what she was meant to do with her life. But she soon found a new passion, seemingly by accident, only landing on photography after she began playing around with a camera and wanting to learn how to shoot.

“Let me just pick up a camera and figure it out,” she says, describing her thought process at the time. “And then I just reached out to some models, and I was just like… shooting.”

While photographing individuals from the area, portrait photography gradually became a primary focus for Marie. Photographing a single person and creating unique photos became a discipline she wanted to perfect. It’s not her only interest as a photographer — there are other areas she hopes to dive into, as she explained.

“Oh my God, fashion. That’s one of the things I’m trying to get into, as far as practicing,” says Marie. “However, my comfort zone is portraits.”

While portrait photography is a common specialty in the world of photography, Marie differs from others when it comes to the ways she composes her shots. Natural props like flowers have become a staple of her photography, and she loves the aesthetic of film, although mastering it was challenging to her at first, because she had to learn how to recreate that aesthetic through digital means.

“[The models] were like, ‘Oh my God, did you shoot with a film camera?’ But no, I don’t have one,” she says of her process. “I would use the grains to add texture, because I wasn’t that familiar with Photoshop. So I would just replace it with grain to make the image look like it has more texture in the skin.”

Learning the skills of photographic composition was challenging enough, but one of Marie’s biggest challenges came from learning how to use the equipment she was given. While cell phones have made photographers out of everyone, understanding the high-end Nikons and Canons that professionals use can prove to be difficult at first. 

“When I first started shooting in the daylight, the sun would be too much. So my images would be overly exposed,” she says. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, what is going on here?’ That was one of the hardest challenges for me, trying to shoot daylight. [For a while,] I was really stuck in the studio.”

Marie eventually mastered adapting to changing surroundings, and has since branched out of portrait photography, capturing graduation and wedding photos.

“I’m just now starting to let people know that I do more than what they see on my main page. I just started putting up the graduation photos and engagement photos, because I want people to know that I do everything,” she says. “I’m a creative photographer, but I can do your engagement shoot.”

While it was never her original goal, these days Marie hopes to build a future for herself in the world of photography, and she’s even thinking about moving into the world of video.

“I do see it being long term,” she says. “I can’t go full time [yet], but I do see that down the road. I also see me being behind the scenes of movies, sharing my ideas with directors and seeing the things I create inside the movie. That’s one of my other goals as well.”

Photography doesn’t come easy when you just happen to fall into it, but Marie has been lucky to do something with her work that is not only beneficial for the people she shoots, but for her as well. Marie knows that her photography not only helps those in front of her camera open up, but gives her the creative outlet to express herself as well.

“Everybody tells me the same thing: how I make them feel when they’re in front of my camera,” she says. “They will tell me that I make them feel more confident than ever in front of a camera, or even away from it. Like, I made them feel so beautiful. And then, when I show them the image, they’re like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe she made me look like this.’ Just to see the smile on my client’s face or a model’s face, their reaction lights up my world. That’s my favorite part — that’s what keeps me going.”

All photos by Selah Marie

Poetry Meets Modeling With Richmond’s Tiffanie Brooke

S. Preston Duncan | March 19, 2020

Topics: art, instagram, modeling, photography, poetry, richmond va, RVA, RVA 39, Tiffanie Brooke

RVA #39 is on the streets now! Here’s another article from the issue, in which artist and poet Tiffanie Brooke reflects on modeling, writing, and the power of the human body in self-expression.

“We are more than the skin we crawl around in.” 

Let’s be honest: among the self-styled “Instapoets” of the world, often there isn’t more behind their words than vaguely-poetic interpretations of fortune cookies and phrases from motivational posters. And while it is wildly popular, whether or not it is authentically poetry could be up for debate. Exceptions to this generality are somewhat rare, but Richmond’s artist and poet Tiffanie Brooke is undeniably one of them. Her writing is both accessible and well-crafted, a refreshing combination in the literary world of stuffy academic writing and pandering to popularity.

Brooke is an alternative model and a deeply candid poet. Her work is evocative, both in front of the camera and on the page. It’s her juxtaposition of imagery that defines who she is as an artist, and it provides a window into her expressive dynamic of strength and unique vulnerability.

RVA Magazine’s R. Anthony Harris had a chance to talk with Brooke about her work, and explore the ideas that sparked her artistic beginnings.

PHOTO: Tiffanie Brooke by Charles Long, RVA 39

R. Anthony Harris:  How did your modeling begin?

Tiffanie Brooke:  I had a very negative outlook on my body when I was a teenager; I was super thin, I didn’t have a chest. My cheekbones jut out. My nose goes off in one direction. I consistently beat myself up… One day I came across America’s Next Top Model, and I became obsessed. I was seeing women that looked like I did, and they all had something about them that matched my “weird.” 

RAH:  How long have you been writing? 

TB:  I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. My brother and I were advised to write in those god-awful composition notebooks by counselors when we were very young. We grew up in a very confusing environment for two small children; I did not come from a communicative family. Writing was, and still is, my form of communication, though this non-direct writing has given me a safe way to express myself. 

RAH:  When did both of these ideas start to intertwine? 

TB:  They intertwined when Instagram became popular, honestly. I thought it was the perfect way to give my work a visual; to further push whatever I was writing about at the time. I wanted to give “selfies” another form, and transform how the imagery in my writing was supposed to look. Why not try to capture a visual of how I feel when I’m “in it,” versus a photo of something else entirely? After all, I’m writing about an experience and how it affects me.

RAH:  What writers do you draw inspiration from?

TB:  James Kavanaugh, Kris Kidd, Louis Gluck, Claudia Emerson, Jayne Pupek, and Richard Siken are a few that I obsess over when writer’s block settles in. Each one is immensely different in their writing types and points of view, but I sympathize with a lot of them. They all seem to capture the vastness of my personality traits.

RAH:  What about photographers?

TB:  I don’t have many photographers that I draw inspiration from, really. I enjoy Jason Lee Perry’s works — I read over a particular piece, and envision it as a movie with me in the middle of it: “What would this scene look like?” 

RAH:  Do you see modeling as a way for people to read your writings?

TB:  Modeling in itself is a form of communication, so absolutely! Saint Jerome said, “The face is the mirror of the mind, and the eyes, without speaking, confess the secrets of the heart.” Modeling and writing are both forms of expression, so it made sense for me to combine the two. Tacking onto what I’ve said before, we’re conditioned to choke down how we physically handle our emotions. I try to capture those emotions visually.

RAH:  Is your body a weapon or a tool?

TB:  Tough question. I am consistently working with, and against, my body. I think we all are, in some shape or form. 

RAH:  Is it a problem when trying to be taken seriously as an artist? 

TB:  There is a very fine line in the public eye — of owning your body, and being sexualized for exhibiting confidence — and that has nothing to do with being an artist. It’s hard being a woman in any industry. Shit, it’s hard being a woman, period. Most of my modeling used for my writing is nude. It’s not an attention thing at all, but more to push that vulnerability of here I am, in all that I am. Clothes are character-building, and we aren’t entirely truthful with ourselves until the veil of that day-to-day character is removed. Unfortunately, because of my comfort in that, I am often looked at as an object… and it stops there. 

RAH:  What does objectification mean to you? 

TB:  Taking something at face value, without intent to find out the inner workings of an individual. 

RAH:  Do you objectify other people?

TB:  Not all the time, and not on purpose. Sometimes I have to force myself to. I am a very deep person; I spend a lot of time in my head. If I didn’t push myself to draw a line with someone that is bouncing around too much mentally, I’d be miserable. We all have individual ways of processing relationships with others, and sometimes it comes down to what we find works best for us. I have a tendency to switch off my feelings for someone completely, and that’s typically where I end up objectifying. 

RAH:  Is it demeaning, or are people just looking for a quick way to understand another person? 

TB:  When I write about a specific person, I don’t use names as to not intentionally hurt or demean someone. I always give individuals code names, and honestly I think it makes some pieces more mysterious and puzzling. I like that about poetry. That said, resonation is such an important factor in any type of writing — we are all looking to be understood in some way. Music and writing are excellent ways to fill that void of alienation.

RAH:  I have to ask about the Yoda tattoo. Do you love his wisdom, or are you just a super nerd? 

TB:  The Yoda tattoo began as a tribute to my relationship with my dad. There aren’t many positive memories attached to him when I think back on my childhood, except for our shared TV time. He got me into Star Wars when I was really young, and we’d watch the series over and over, weekly. Maybe for him, it was one of the few things we could do together that I wasn’t talking his ear off, but that I walked away from with an adoration for a fantasy world I wanted to find myself in. We didn’t expect there to be sequels, but it’s a relief to have something we can continue to connect on.

RAH:  What do you hope people understand about your work? 

TB:  I am so much more than a “half-naked girl on Instagram.” There is always more than meets the surface; everyone is where they are because of an experience that set them there. If we all took a little more time to understand each other at more than face value, we would come to know that we are more than the skin we crawl around in. Writing is free, and always available. Whether pen-to-paper or in the notepad on a cell phone, the ability to set our inner workings out in one way or another is incredibly healthy — and important. You never know how much your experiences can aid another person’s until you make yourself vulnerable. 

Intro by S. Preston Duncan. Interview by R. Anthony Harris.  

Humble, A Street Artist

S. Preston Duncan | March 12, 2020

Topics: Chris Tsui, fashion designers, Fat Dragon, Foo Dog, Giovanna Cordero, Humble, Lamplighter, modeling, Modelogic, muralists, Navid Rahman, Need Supply Co., RVA 39, RVA Threads, street art, Studio Two Three, Totokaelo, Veilance

RVA Magazine #39 is on the streets now! In this article from its pages, Humble, Richmond’s longtime muralist, clothing designer, and model, reflects on his journey from starving artist to modeling for professional shoots in the desert.

Listen to the Radio RVA Podcast Interview with Humble here.

Humbleness isn’t exactly a native concept in the fashion world. In the popular mythos of the “Starving Artist,” there’s rarely a tenement devoted to bedless clothing designers sleeping on a pile of blankets and ambition. But then, Richmond’s Kyle Harrell — better known as Humble — doesn’t quite fit in the glossy fashion box hawked by Hollywood scripts and reality television. 

That’s partially because Humble is a catalyst of artistic vision. Muralist, model, clothing designer, and event coordinator, he takes creativity as an articulation of Creative Class culture. He brings disparate sources of inspiration together into an identifiable expression of experience and taste. But the Virginia Beach native didn’t grow up on aerosol dreams or lofty runway aspirations. 

“The goal was to go to VCU, because I wanted to be an engineer. As soon as I got here, though, the culture was crazy. So I thought, ‘Fuck engineering. I don’t wanna do that,’” he said. “I started [studying] psychology and religious studies. I’ve been in Richmond for 11 years now, I fell in love with this city. We were hosting a lot of events, so I kind of got stuck here. ‘Stuck,’ not in a bad way — I just love this city so damn much.” 

Image via thisisnothumble.com

It wasn’t just Richmond’s underground music and art scene that kept him here, but the culturally-inclusive environment that encouraged Humble to carve out a name for himself by way of social immersion. 

Humble says his interest in art came about in a Van Gogh and Spirituality course at VCU. And it wasn’t so much the coursework as boredom; one day he started drawing portraits of his classmates. By the time he graduated, he found his priorities shifting. 

“Eventually that became obsessive. Around that time, I was married,” he said. “I had been playing around with the idea with her, that I wanted to make art. And she said, ‘You’re too smart to make art. You could do something better.’” 

The two had a falling out, and Humble spent 12 hours a day in the VCU library, pulling down books and drawing everything he could get his hands on. He also found himself divorced and living in Section 8 housing.

“Art was the only thing I had that was inspiring me to get up and do something,” he said. “It was a pretty depressive point in my life. It was tough, but it was for the better.”

Image via thisisnothumble.com

Around that time, Humble found commiseration and mentorship in Navid Rahman, an illustrator and muralist willing to share in poverty and inspiration. He moved into Humble’s apartment, where the two slept on the floor and practiced drawing. 

“That moment in time was definitely pivotal. Navid had just gotten out of a relationship. He was an artist as well,” Humble said. “In fact, I call him my master. He took me under his wing. So [he lived with me] free of charge… We’d wake up every day and just draw. He taught me a lot. He [wasn’t afraid to] say, ‘Yo, that looks like shit. Do it again.’ He’s definitely one of my best friends.”

Humble began to reconstruct himself from rock bottom. He emerged from a landscape of broken relationships and bank accounts, as a designer with credible life experience and a compelling narrative arc. None of this would have happened without Rahman, who brought him in on a mural project for the Lamplighter on Addison. The two spent the better part of a week pulling all-nighters while putting the piece up in the bathroom.

“I would work a double at Alamo, drive across that damn Leigh Street Bridge, and we’d stay up until 6 or 7am, then I’d go back to work,” Humble said. “It was all his art direction and style. I was laying down lines, but that sparked something. It lived in the space.” 

That project was what made Humble decide to take his work in a larger direction. Together with Rahman, he strived to find more work and create a portfolio as a foundation for their careers.

“From there, I started reaching out to mad people. At the time, I didn’t know how to paint. I had never played with color,” he said. “We were doing black and white stuff, and that’s when I switched to painting. I met up with Chris Tsui, who owns Fat Dragon and Foo Dog. He set us up on our next piece, which ended up being huge.”

Up to this point, Humble had never touched spray paint. He and Rahman mapped out a mural spanning the side of the Fat Dragon building, and improvised their vision for it. They completed it with little more than a mental image and an electric lift. 

“We didn’t really know what we were doing at the time. Chris was cool about it, too,” Humble said. “We did a giant anime dragon on that wall. It’s different, and not a lot of people are into that. From there, our next gig was Foo Dog. We did the patio; the giant anime girl with chopsticks and the dragon coming out. That was the start of it — so our street art and painting, in general, has gone about five years strong.” 

Image via thisisnothumble.com

It was during this formative whirlwind of creative development that Humble began designing and manufacturing clothes, on an almost-literal shoestring budget. His target demographic consisted of the Richmond skate and music scene denizens who attended his parties. He saw it as a way to make money from his art and promote his work. 

“Learning how to screen print, I started out in the bathroom at my house, exposing [prints] in the sun. It was chaos,” Humble said. “From there, I worked with RVA Threads, who had a screen printing studio in his basement. He took me under his wing and showed me how to do everything.”

When Humble went to Studio Two Three to start making clothing, the time came to find a name for his clothing brand. He still remembers the conversation with Rahman that would eventually define the company.

“Navid said, ‘You should call it Humble. People call you humble about the fact that you’re doing this, but you’re doing it low key. You’ve got talent, but you don’t really flash it.’”

While he was selling shirts at house shows, an underground fashion scene began to emerge. Separate from the institutional culture at VCU, these DIY designers developed a collaborative environment that led to an unforeseen shift in Humble’s trajectory. 

“At Studio Two Three, that’s when my homie Chase Beasley (of Crud City) was kicking around. He was just starting up art as well; I was teaching him how to screen print. Earl Mack with Chilalay was in the studio. So we’re buzzing around, sharing ideas. We were doing underground fashion shows, building these runways,” Humble said. “It was crazy how much people were willing to put these things together. We had no idea what we were doing, because none of us were part of the school. Our fashion shows were ridiculous — but people showed up, and then we partied our asses off. That energy, now that I think back on it, was very, very alive. There was always something to do every weekend, and it had something to do with art, music, fashion. We were doing a lot, especially for that community at the time.”

During those early days at Studio Two Three, Humble’s interest in fashion deepened — until, as fate would have it, an opportunity presented itself at Lamplighter. 

“I was sitting outside smoking a cigarette, and this blonde girl came up to me and said, ‘Hey, do you live in Richmond? You’ve got a good look. I would love for you to come by the studio and take some test shots.’” 

Image via thisisnothumble.com

Having never thought of himself as a model, he agreed to pose for a shoot to generate income. Without even knowing the photographer’s name, he eventually learned that the gig was for Richmond’s own Need Supply Co.

“I was nervous. I’m a humble dude, I don’t see myself in front of the camera. I still don’t,” he said. “It’s still always weird to me… But I went, and they started booking me all the time. They were flying photographers from L.A. to shoot me here in Richmond. And they were paying me out the ass.” 

While modeling for Need Supply Co.’s lookbooks, Humble connected with modeling agent Giovanna Cordero, who transferred to the agency Modelogic shortly after. The two kept in touch when the Need Supply Co. shoots died down.

“I focused on my art career for a while, then Gio hit me back up to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this gig I think you’re perfect for.’ Ends up being Totokaelo. Super high fashion stuff,” he said. “I’ve been working with them for a couple years now, and they’re incredible. Eventually Modelogic got privy, so I got signed. I’ve been doing gigs in Baltimore, New York, down here. The money is insane. It’s what’s kept me in there — it’s given me a look at the fashion industry that I wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. Seeing how things work, how to do photoshoots, garment instruction, what you can really do with fashion. It’s limitless.” 

A few months later, a small company reached out over Instagram. They turned out to be Veilance, a subsidiary of the Canadian high-end outdoor clothing and sporting goods company, Arc’teryx. 

“My agent calls me and she says, ‘Hey, they want to fly you out to Utah, pay for everything, pay you 4k per diem. You’ll be out there for four days.’ It was insane,” he said. “The first time I’ve ever been flown out anywhere for something like that, and we had private chefs catering for us.” 

The shoot was staged in the middle of the desert, “where NASA tests land rovers for Mars,” Humble said. He was the only American there.

“There was a guy from Russia, an incredible model-looking dude. I thought, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ There was a famous photographer from France that shoots futuristic technology stuff, and the whole crew is from Canada where Arc’teryx is based,” Humble said. “The hairdresser is good friends with Kanye. We’re all sitting around this table in the middle of the desert, sharing stories, and I’m just starstruck. I had taken a step away from clothing, especially creating, and over the past couple years I’ve been coming back into it through modeling, being re-inspired.” 

Image via thisisnothumble.com

True to his name, none of this has gone to his head. Humble’s plan now is to continue working with his community in mutually supportive, innovative ways; figuring out upon what great walls — both physical and allegorical — they may together make their mark. 

“I see it metaphorically as walking through the dark with a candle,” he said. “You are the light. You don’t know where you’re going. You might be blazing the way, but mostly it’s a crapshoot, because there are no answers to any of this. There’s no methodology that will make you successful. Just keep working, keep your head down, keep producing dope shit, and help your homies as much as you can. Help everyone as much as you can. I think that’s a really big thing, working together in the scene.” 

Top Photo via Humble/Instagram

A Common Thread: The Story Behind Richmond Fashion Brand Stitch By Chanel

Lauren Hepburn | February 7, 2020

Topics: Chanel Green, clothing, clothing design, modeling, richmond va, RVA, RVA Fashion Week, sewing, small businesses in RVA, Stitch By Chanel, womenswear

Starting a womenswear brand from scratch is a difficult challenge, but it’s one that has led Stitch By Chanel to reach great heights in only a few years.

Chanel Green, a native of Henrico County and a Varina High School graduate, had never intended to start a clothing company  — until she realized that her hobby and favored family pastime could actually become a real business. That realization, which took place two years ago, is what led to the establishment of her custom-order womenswear brand, Stitch By Chanel.

Growing up in suburban Virginia was a far cry from the experiences of her mother and grandmother. Many years ago, Chanel’s grandmother set out on a mission to support her children from afar, leaving Trinidad for London in search of work. She eventually had the opportunity to bring her twelve children overseas and reunite with them. Although they held onto their differences, one thing remained consistent through the generations: the family tradition of creating clothing. This is where our story starts. 

Chanel Green of Stitch By Chanel (Photo via Stitch By Chanel/Facebook)

While living and growing up in London, Chanel’s mother participated in pageants as well as modeling. This meant that looking fabulous on a regular basis was a must, but it had to be done on a budget. High-street shops weren’t an option. Luckily, Chanel explained, “[My grandmother] had taught my mom how to sew … my mom made her own dresses.” Because of the countless hours her grandmother had invested in teaching her children the intricacies of sewing and the skills that turn sketches into actual garments, Chanel’s mother was able to make things work for herself. 

Chanel herself learned how to sketch, sew, and create her own garments from family members who passed the trade down through the generations as a way of connecting creatively. “My grandma always did it out of passion, my mom always did it out of passion,” she says.  “[My mother] taught me how to knit, she taught me how to sew, she taught me so many different things.”

While the family history of designing definitely existed, Chanel couldn’t always perceive the path to starting her own clothing company. But after graduating from high school and spending 10 years working in the corporate banking world, she got tired of the limitations her chosen career had imposed on her. She was ready for something bigger and better; she was finally ready to create. Lessons she had learned from both her mother and grandmother taught her what to do. “The biggest lesson that they have taught me is that this has to be done,” said Chanel. ”We have to create this.” 

Photo via Stitch By Chanel/Facebook

Creating mood boards, selecting fabrics, and constructing clothing for Stitch By Chanel has allowed Chanel to discover parts of her personality that she wasn’t familiar with before. “When you find the things that actually complete you, and it’s your actual self, I feel like you constantly find a new version of ‘you’,” she says. “Creating and sewing has been an outlet for me. It has created a space that allowed me to find myself.”

Although she’s successfully pursuing her dreams now, she wasn’t always optimistic. “Being a business owner, you fail so many times, but nobody ever tells you that failure is success. People only tell you that failure is failure,” says Chanel. “Getting overwhelmed with failure is not something that anyone ever tells you how to handle.”

After the task of designing and managing her own business started to leave her feeling drained, Chanel had to make a decision: get back up, or throw it all away. While the possibility of failure will always be present for  business owners, Chanel didn’t let it bring her down, focusing on her main motivation to keep pursuing her dreams — the creation of a family legacy.

“There’s also not a lot of African American women in the fashion industry,” she says. ”A lot of the time, that lane (of opportunity) is diminished.” Even as more and more artists and creators of color are  given opportunities in mainstream creative spaces, there is still a ton of work to be done, and Chanel wants to make sure she does her part. 

Photo via Stitch By Chanel/Facebook

In the spring of 2019, Stitch By Chanel made its debut on the catwalk at RVA Fashion Week, Central Virginia’s biggest annual presentation of fashion created by local and national brands. Since then, her focus has been on creating custom pieces for clients, as well as reworking vintage items and breathing new life into older clothing. 

“There’s a lot of things you think are supposed to happen in the first year that just don’t,” says Chanel. “It takes time … I’m in the process of finalizing all of the branding details, getting the business plan finalized … Having a store and creating a place where people can come and not only see Stitch By Chanel but actually feel Stitch By Chanel is definitely going to be the next step.”

Find Stitch By Chanel online at stitchbychanel.com and on Instagram @stitchbychanel.

Top Photo via Stitch By Chanel/Facebook

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