'On time, practice & test shoots' / Elijah el Kahale [Interview]
Elijah El Kahale shares a collection of experimental test shoots and speaks on cultivating a thoughtful creative practice within the often shallow commercial space.
Elijah El Kahale is a Djubuguli (Sydney) based photographer & fine Arts student who in this series shares a collection of test shoots that involves the model interacting with an ongoing experimental art practice.
In mainstream fashion photography, the standard is to isolate the model at the forefront relying on them heavily as an accessory for product display and often nothing more. Elijah diverts and rejects this practice by thoughtfully bringing the individual back into focus.
In this interview we speak about the pressure to pump-out work in the commercialized creative space, and how this culture of over-productivity often requires creatives to sacrifice nuance & thoughtfulness in an effort to churn out relevant content, producing shallow outputs as a result.
Read below:
I’d love to first get to know a little more about yourself and your practice. What has your creative journey been from the beginning to now, and how do you feel it has evolved?
I began getting involved in photography assisting my cousin. I remember my first time at one of his shoots, just kind of being like - ‘wow, the lighting, and everything’. Right after highschool I went to Ultimo TAFE to study photo-imaging. It taught rather broadly, it felt strict and statuesque, although there was plenty to learn on a technical level which was good.
And I learned to be more fluid when I was photographing events and nightlife in my much earlier years. However I stopped some months after I was hospitalised over a sickness. You could say the cause was fatigue, drinking, dodgy clients, shitty patrons, being amongst shallow people with shallow ideas, unpaid invoices, and general regrettable decision making.
I was finally able to put in the time, though I was struggling with putting out editorial submissions and doing test shoots with no money, and with overwhelming self criticism. What changed was that one of my best friends - who’s a photographer, creative director, and a mentor of mine - said to me. He liked my documentarian approach, and he encouraged me to apply that to how I photograph and allow my subject to be what it is. It meant that I had to work my concepts differently in a way.
That’s one of the reasons why I am now studying Fine Arts in UNSW Arts & Design (formerly known as College of Fine Arts or COFA) where I’m also learning other mediums like painting, video and sound, history, and theory. It also set the right limitations and in a way that there is more involvement from the subjects.
As I was photographing tests, I figured - what better opportunity to experiment and provide a space for myself to put different ideas to practice?
Slowly test shooting for me became a form of artistic practice as well as a way to provide models a space to involve themselves more. And that became a rule of thumb for portrait taking. Models were already going to essentially be a billboard to sell some shallow idea of a product formulaically, so why not take the time now to try to make something else and create that space for models. Not to say all commerce is bad or even unartistic, but I feel a lot of commerce at the speedy rate that it comes in comes at a cost of the soul that is greatly missing here in Australia.
I feel a lot of those who enter the creative industry could really resonate with this story- the pressure of turning your creative practice into a product in order to ‘be something’.
And as you said, noticing this influx of very shallow ideas all for the sake of pumping out work or creating revenue. It’s as if ideas with potential integrity are distilled, then heavily diluted and packaged neatly for easy consumption - no nuance attached.
What do you think this acceleration towards the oversaturation of shallow ideas is coming from?
Prioritising how quickly capital can be generated, quantity over quality. And it shows when we look at the state of the planet, the amount of destruction of land that becomes an accumulation of waste, as well as the huge growth spurt in depression on a social level.
It is no wonder just how misunderstood young people are when there is less agency in what we can make and how we can sell the things we create, especially when you look at the lack of support for small / local business workers and for students. Which leaves us stuck having to do a lot of jobs to pay high rent, balancing that with personal and study life, and not enough time is ever afforded to actually indulge and cultivate our own crafts and businesses.
“Prioritising how quickly capital can be generated, quantity over quality.”
On taking the time and letting things gestate.
Like many creatives, we still gotta do other things to put food on the table, materials for uni and pay our parking fines. It sucks that it does honestly take me a lot of time to export my shoots, but even if it takes me months I still prefer to not rush my work in the editing process and provide it the amount of care it deserves. And in a way time allows you to understand my own photographs more, as it should, they’re documents but also memories.
Could you tell me a little more about what a test shoot means in context with the fashion industry?
In the world of fashion photography, a test shoot (or a go-see) is essentially there for testing the model, and for the photographer's practice. They usually aren’t paid for it’s always time-for-photos / portfolio (TFP). I don’t know anyone who makes money off of test shoots, (if they do, someone please let me know!). I try to make it more of an art practice anyway.
In test shoots, you can kind of do anything, as long as you have something for the model to have on their Sed card, and usually, they want that kept relatively simple. If you look at any test shoot, they’re generally pretty simple and clean shots of the model - that’s what most modeling agencies want. But then there’s also cool agencies that like what I do, and of course other photographers who share a similar goal.
And this kind of freedom is needed for test shooting, as it is the only time you’re ever really focusing on the model.
You talked earlier about how you realised that for yourself it’d be important to go to art school. How do you feel it has served your practice?
It’s added a lot to my development! It’s definitely made me more confident in myself and in what to know, understanding communications and the mediums to do it with, and how we understand things. And learning painting, moving images, and sound have also expanded my ability to communicate. And I guess as an overthinker, it’s evident I’m always thirsty of knowing, exploring, and then beating my head into how to materialize into reality haha
I’ve been interested in the idea of nostalgia lately. I had a discussion a while back talking about how it seems to be a reoccurring happening between generations, I really feel it the loudest now. You see it in the current aesthetic trends or even this movement towards collaged genres.
My thoughts are that perhaps in this current time, nostalgia serves as a yearning to slow down or grasping at the idea of integrity. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this subject.
I feel we haven’t been able to enjoy the current paradigm, as difficult as it is with the pandemic and all, but the fast consumption of media and the lack of personal interaction certainly make it more difficult.
But if anything I’m happy to see things slow down, it would do us a lot of good to be bored and allow time to do what it must. You’re definitely right about aesthetic trends, that’s been a reoccurring thing for the past 10 years give or take. I’m definitely a huge fan of all things the ’90s and ’00s, be it the music or video games, or even the music in video games!
One day I figured out why those small point-&-shoot film cameras are so awesome, and it’s because they are beautifully simple in concept and yet we pushed the limits with those things, and we allowed time to allow us to see them as tangible memories. I think being patient with the process and enjoying it is key.
The state of creativity or creation in context with the societal pressures to ‘be something’ or ‘do something’ can often leave us susceptible to the pitfalls of ‘Do but don’t think’.
It seems just too easy to fall into the spiral pit of soulless work and shallow output. Elijah’s approach to documenting the understated use of test shoots is a gentle reminder to take time to appreciate your practice, see the beauty and nuance it embodies in every aspect- and reintroduce the practice of thoughtful cultivation and creation.
In a world overrun by shallow ideas, a slow pace and thoughtful gaze may be the best form of rebellion against a metrics and productivity-driven culture that ultimately always values profit over true creative freedom and exploration.
Stay up to date with Elijah el Kahale on Instagram
Interview by Nadia Cao (@nadia.cao)
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