From timeless Egypt to fashionable London and further off to New York’s fashion scene, with
numerous adventures in between, jet-setting life of a fashion photographer and a global citizen
Nikka Lorak looks like a bright kaleidoscope.
A former film director turned into a visual creator — that’s is a mixture between a fashion photographer, a branding consultant and a visionary — Lorak creates visual concepts and captures still and motion pictures across the globe. Cuban Havana, Kenyan Mombasa, Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Berlin. The list of Lorak’s shooting locations goes on and on.
“I find plenty of inspiration in cultural variety,” says Lorak.“ I had grown up in a family of European expats in Egypt. Its mysterious temples, beautiful language and outstanding hospitality shaped my happy childhood that allowed me to keep a fresh eye for Western civilization that I discovered in my late teenage for the first time. As a traveler and an explorer, who I had been my whole life, I’m thrilled to capture my vision of each country I visit or the culture I’m exposed to.”
Kenya
Lorak traveled to Kenya to work on a fashion and cultural project Back to Roots that had been later well received through her personal exhibition in a private members club ‘The Library’ in London. In collaboration with 5 local fashion and jewelry designers and a local stylist, Lorak created a project that fuses the elements of Kenyan national costume with contemporary fashion.
The project also underlines the woman’s role in the Kenyan society that clearly shifts from patriarchal to independent and even leading. Participation of authentic Masai warriors, that traditionally are considered to be a symbol of local military power as well as male power in general, symbolizes the shift.
Lorak recalls breathtaking sunsets, exotic national costume and tribal face paint of Masai warriors, fierce passion for life that she had felt in Kenyan every day rituals and that is exactly what one would expect to find looking at her Kenyan images.
Cuba
“Coming to Cuba for the first time I had been stunned with its colors and textures,” says Lorak.
“Every single corner looks like a film set. I had been charmed by old fashioned mansions in a
colonial style and vibrant Cuban culture that due to its particular history is very different from other Caribbean islands.”
On her images captured in Havana, Lorak sets her high fashion models into colorful interiors of old Cuban homes, indulging in color, antique furniture and accessories, clearly enjoying the taste of nostalgia for Cuban Golden era.
“As a former film director, I believe that storytelling is the goal of every image,” claims Lorak. “I
want my Cuban series transmit the nostalgia for the grandioseness of Havana’s glory days.
Heritage mansion that now had been run down, grand entrance with a chandelier covered in
spiderweb, a graffiti of Che Guevara on a wall – every element narrates the story of this historically unique island with a bitter-sweet taste of nostalgia.”
Nostalgia plays a big role In Nikka Lorak’s work. She claims that she does not belong to the current era. “I’m an 80s kid deep inside,” says Lorak, “free-spirited and sometimes wild.” Being a huge fan of rock music and rock-n-roll lifestyle that is seen by Lorak as a “rebellious and romantic symbol of ever lasting adolescence,” Lorak’s next photography project is classically called ‘Drugs-SexRocknroll”.
In collaboration with internationally acclaimed entertainers, Lorak recreates images of the spectacular and astonishing world of rock-n-roll, with its infamous rock stars, heroine chic on catwalks, legendary groupies, first super models, home made stage styling and loads of raw energy that shines through each image.
Expect iconic locations and recognized faces. Project Drugs-Sex-Rock-n-Roll is to be released through four bi-annual exhibitions in NYC and Los Angeles.
