Florence Campbell Is Interviewed By Fashion Photographer; Martina Yozzi On The Creative Process & Importance Of Art [@youknowmartinaa]

Florence Campbell Is Interviewed By Uruguay Based Fashion Photographer; Martina Yozzi.

M: Hi Florence, tell us a bit about yourself!

F: I’m Florence Campbell, a German-American video artist, who grew up in Majorca. I come from a textile and fashion design background and so what interests me aesthetically in imagery is mainly colour and texture. I mostly create objects, garments, and textures for my moving and still imagery. When I collaborate with other artists, to shoot their pieces of clothes, for example, I still love creating something that works together with their art.

M: Where do you find your inspiration to create your pieces / art?

F: My creative process usually starts with deeply personal feelings and/or worries. I investigate the subject or issue that I am concerned about, by talking to people, reading philosophical texts, and looking at movies that in some way touch on what I am looking to understand in my life. I write down words that sound poetic and visual to me and translate them into images I could create. Aesthetically I get my inspiration from where I came from, the earthy, sandy Majorca. As well as the darkness and lush feeling of nature around the place I studied in Lyon, France.

M: As a black woman, has your identity influenced the way you come up with different ideas and concepts for your pieces and films?

F: Well, the ancient worlds are a big inspiration for me, not only visually. I love imagining invented ancestral places and people with their own very specific rituals and clothes. I feel like in these ancient times people truly knew how to be in touch with space and nature they lived in. I am deeply pulled towards all things that are authentic, proud, and true. Even though my art is not race-related, it is species related. I think that visually the objects and worlds I imagine come from my tropical Caribbean roots. I love translating all of this into grainy imagery and love that it looks timeless.

M: How has quarantine affected your creative process?

F: I just moved to Paris a week ago and am really looking forward to the energy in my creative process to become more dynamic again, after these long months of quarantine. The spring months indoors were really lovely to slow down and do what I want with my art, and not what I think I should be doing, but now the time has come again to get active.

M: What it’s a project you have loved working in the past, and what can we expect from you in the future?

F: Recently I collaborated with Victoire Marion-Moneger, an upcoming fashion designer. She gave me complete artistic freedom in my interpretation of her collection, and so I created fruits made out of homemade play-doh which I then filmed and edited throughout the fashion film. I’m still editing it, but it will come out soon. I have also been contacted by the designer and artist Jaime Morales Cortes! He would like to see my vision interpret his pieces, and that is exactly what I love doing. I hope to always be able to freely create with the input of an inspiring person!

M: Thank you so much Florence, we can’t wait to see what you are preparing!

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