The London-based photographer Bea Dero uses her Sony A7 III to create high contrast, romantic glimpses of young lives. \u201cThis includes celebrating all who authentically embrace themselves,\u201d says Bea, who creates unapologetic depictions of \u201cnatural ancestral features, self-expression and sexuality\u201d. Conviviality is the glowing heart of Bea\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
Her projects A Night In and When Joy Emerges demonstrate this zest for togetherness. Friends fold over each other, sharing a cigarette. They share a kiss. They dance. These snapshots feel like candid memories of camaraderie, bound by shared cultural ties shown through draped fabrics and coin scarves. It\u2019s through a mix of playful creative energy, strobe lights and edits in Photoshop and Lightroom that images become distinctly Bea. \u201cI love capturing togetherness, joy, movement, dance, play, love \u2014 anything that gives release,\u201d says Bea. \u201cI see this all as a form of resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bea\u2019s work celebrates collective identity, as informed by her British-Iranian heritage. She depicts familiar details: \u201cpatterns, rugs, family, good food, traditions \u2013 any sense of home\u201d, says the photographer. In The Moving Van Cost Too Much, a rug hold between two pairs of hands at a tube station is shown as a creature comfort, something that makes a house a home. It\u2019s the hardest thing to carry when moving, and yet, the arduous journey is always worth it. Rice or Chips?, meanwhile, is a demonstration of blended belonging. A figure holds a bag of Kamran rice in a family portrait-style stance, shot in front of a fish and chip shop \u2013 the quintessential British staple.<\/p>\n
Perseverance is key tenent for the photographer. She\u2019s inspired by filmmaker Jafar Pahani, influenced by his \u201cpersistence and utter need to create and share, making it all happen on his own terms no matter the circumstance\u201d. Bea spent years refusing to call herself a photographer, seeing her relationship with the camera as simply experimentation with image-making. But she embraced the label after slowly but surely falling in love with the medium: \u201cI don\u2019t think the title encapsulates my entire identity as an artist, but it now feels like a hugely essential part of my practice,\u201d Bea ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The London-based photographer Bea Dero uses her Sony A7 III to create high contrast, romantic glimpses of young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-324908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}