Photographer Interview:
Mahaneela
BIO
Mahaneela is a multidisciplinary artist from London with roots in Ghana, India and Jamaica. Her work explores the themes of diasporic history, music and culture, with a focus on the black experience and emphasis on depicting black and brown people in modes of joy and happiness.
In a direct response to the lack of representation black and asian people in the mainstream media, she hopes to provide a new perspective, one that is bright, beautiful and authentic.
Aside from her photography and filmmaking work, Mahaneela is a creative strategist and consultant, working with artists, labels and brands to ideate and execute real world activations and events among other creative outputs.
Where are you from? Where do you currently reside?
I am from London, United Kingdom, and I currently reside in Bushwick in Brooklyn, New York.
Tell us a little weird fact about yourself, beyond the basic, who are you?
I grew up in an old people's home! My mom was an estate manager in an old people's home. I grew up there and I was the only child from the age of six and everybody was 70 and up and they were all my best friends- It was a very unique childhood for that reason. We moved out when I was 13, and those were my pals, old people pretty much. Whenever I tell my friends that they're like, "Oh, that makes sense." haha
How long have you been shooting for?
As long as I can remember, I actually just found this old letter that I'd written at school when I was age 11 and I said I wanted to be these three things. It wasn't like i want to be this, OR this, and so on, it was and, which tells you a lot about me as a child.
I was like, ‘I want to be a photographer and a writer and a musician.’ And I feel now, I did all these things, I mean, if you count being a DJ as musician in some way.. So pretty much for as long as I can remember. I think the time when I really started to take it seriously was when I was about 19. Yeah, 19. I was always that person that had the camera, I was the one in the group that friends would ask, "Oh, Neela send us the photos from last night." - I was that person, haha.
How has your photography evolved over the years?
I would say in some ways it's evolved, I would say my capabilities and my skill set has evolved because I've always been completely self-taught. I feel it always will evolve and grow. But, I think that my photography has actually pretty much been consistent. I can do lots of different styles and things, but those photos that I take for myself, if you look at photos I took in 2016 and you look at photos I take now, they're definitely in conversation with each other.. It's close up, very bright, colorful, high saturation portraits-and that's just what I love to do.
It took me a while to realize what my thing was, and I think it takes all photographers a while to sit back and look at a body of your work and say oh, that's what I do, that's my aesthetic! But now when I look back, even when I'm shooting on my iPhone, before I even had a proper camera, I was taking these kinds of portraits. As long as it was a bold, bright color in the background, maybe fabric, something - and then it's always all about the face for me.
Is there any specific moment that stands out where you knew you wanted to pursue photography?
Yes. The first time I came to New York for sure - when I met my boy down there (points to Maachew Bentley on the call and laughs), 2015. I was with all my friends and we took an image of us and it went viral all over, Tumblr, at the time. Everybody was asking us who we were, what we were, because they didn't understand six black women who were taking pictures of themselves. They felt it had to be a thing, surely. And we were like, ‘we're just friends’....and that was the moment after leaving we’re thinking like, ‘maybe this should be a thing, maybe we should take this seriously,’ because, not many people are taking pictures like us, or of us, you know? So that was the moment. It’s so crazy how long ago that was now.
Did you buy your first camera or was it a gift?
I inherited it, because my grandfather was a photographer. His name was Kamal Choudhury. I grew up with cameras all over the house. I got his cameras when he passed away when I was 12 years old. They were kept in storage at my grandparents home. My family were always there like, ‘they’re going to be yours one day..’ And it wasn't until I was about 22, 23, I started to actually dig into them. I really didn't make the connection at first, so I was going on my journey of photography because that’s how me and my friends all came together, we’d take pictures of each other and whatever. It just didn't align to me that it was the same thing as my grandfather being a photographer back in the 50s, documenting what was around him as he traveled Africa. Because he passed away when I was so young, I never really got to talk to him about it. So it was more of a legacy thing of my granddad who took pictures.
While I was taking pictures with my friends, I'd saved up for my own camera, my own first professional camera… it was a Canon 1000 D or something - But then my mom's like, ‘you know, you have all these cameras from your grandad?’ And I'm like, wait, what-let me just start getting into that-and then I started to teach myself film photography. They were all 35 millimeter cameras, hundreds of them. So, yeah, that was when I started to realize, Oh, I've been kind of born to do this my whole life.
I really thought it was my own path- and it is, but it's also the path that’s made for me, you know? So that wasn't until 2016. I got booked for a job where I had to travel for the first time as a photographer, I went to South Africa and I was taking pictures of wildlife, and then I had this very full circle moment of, ‘Oh my God, this is literally what my grandad did for 45 years across Africa,’ that was his whole career. And it just made it real for me like, ‘Oh, I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing’. I should take this really seriously because this is in my blood and in my DNA.
Do you still use any of his cameras today?
Yeah, I use all of them still to this day, old school Nikons, all his lenses, everything. I brought it all to New York. Well, not all, but I brought a lot of it to New York. And then recently, my grandma passed away, and I went back to London and we found even more stuff that she'd saved. My grandmother’s name was Dipali Choudhury, and she was a wildlife conservationist, and a teacher. She was always the keeper of all our family’s history and heirlooms. She would always playfully say, ‘You can all look at this when I'm gone, but not until then”, kind of thing. I had always thought my grandad was just into wildlife photography, as he was a painter as well. His work focused on wildlife and landscapes. So I never thought he had images of people, and then I found all this stuff, exhibition flyers, posters, and it was all portraiture of African people all across the continent. And I'm thinking, that's literally what I do now-this is insane. Seeing portraiture by my granddad even more so just cemented to me that idea, that this was what I was born to do, you know?
“I think impact is a really big part of my creative thinking. I'm always thinking about legacy impacts, how this can exist outside of just this thing. How can we build a world?”
You’ve released 1 book so far, “Through My Lens” - can you tell us about your favorite moment when making it, and one of your favorite parts of the book?
I would say my favorite part in making it was actually the organizing, probably a lot of people who make books talk about this, the moment where you're actually sorting and categorizing your work, because then you start to realize, Oh, I actually have photo series and I actually have themes-and there's an actual method to all this madness. So that was my favorite part of just seeing it. I worked with my friend, Rachel Bungey and her art & design studio called Mantis Studio, she did all formatting.
She started to put them in and then I started to build with her and then I realized. Wow, yeah, place is so important, to what I do, place and person and the connection between those two, the people I meet, the places I go and then how I reflect on it. Also just recognizing my own. It gave me a sense of what my own superpower is in terms of how I'm able to get this access and connect with these people in a way to create this intimate kind of portraiture, it's because they look at me and they see themselves. And because I've traveled, because I've been to many different places. For example, I may be in Nigeria, but there's certain colloquialisms and terms that I picked up in Ghana that are going to help me feel closer to that person there, you know?
Images and layout from Through My Lens
You are a polymath, your creative interests and focus are not in one area, but what is your favorite creative endeavor you’ve taken on so far?
I would say my favorite creative endeavor is a documentary I shot in Mauritius a year ago. And I also did lots and lots of film photography around that as well. I think that was my favorite thing, because it was-first of all, Mauritius, this is a place that didn't have an indigenous group of people that lived on that land. So, European colonizers brought indentured workers from India and enslaved people from West Africa to the island. And that's literally my DNA. My mom is from India and my dad is from Ghana. So going there was like, ‘Oh my God, everybody looks like me, this is crazy!’
So it was very cool to have that experience. And it also just opened my eyes to what we perceive as Africa. Right. It's just this tiny Island off the coast of Africa and the in the Indian ocean and all the people there look completely different. There are so many different types of Mauritian. Almost every ethnicity, people of Dutch or French descent, east Asian, Malaysian or Chinese, as well as of course Indian & African. Honestly, all of us in this call could theoretically be from Mauritius, there's just so much diversity there, really. Because of the fact that there isn't an indigenous population, because everybody came, and so much of the island now has mixed, it's created this one unifying kind of identity. And it's almost a little window into what the world is going to be like in the future. And so it was really cool to go there. I worked with a non-profit, they brought me over and I just did it for being able to go.
It felt like, oh, this is a project where I'm able to use the skill set that I have. I went with my friend, Christina Nwabugo, who's also an incredible photographer. It was me and her. I literally I had like nine cameras haha. I was shooting film at all times. So I had this guy and then I had this guy (Neela puts up a number of film cameras on the video call) and then I have my HD camera and I have my vhs and I have my super 8, and I had so many things…. and I created this multi-format documentary, that's all about this festival that they have in Le Morne, which is in the Southwestern, part where mostly Black & brown Mauritiuans live. And the documentary, is basically them talking about climate change and living as one with the earth. They talk about their agriculture, and growing their own food... I learned so much from them as far as just how they live.
So it was just really beautiful in the sense of, this is a gift I can give to the world. Right. Of being able to have this privilege to travel to these places, and actually add value. There's very little documentation of Mauritius. These people's stories needed to be told. And there's elders from the village. And they were telling me about when the slave masters left Mauritius. They literally know this story from memory alone, and it being passed down. So just being able to actively play a role in the documentation of a culture and history that I haven't seen has been done before. That was really, really powerful. So I think that's my favorite thing I've done because I feel it has the most value in the world, even though it isn't even out yet.
I can’t wait to go back, I think there’s so much more to go back and just talk about that whole history and everything. Cause there's just so little out there. Definitely from the Western perspective, many people probably don't even know that it exists. People think of the Mauritius like the Maldives, you know, if they know it, they know it as a honey-moon vacation type of locations. You don't think about the people. You don't know what people even look from there. You just think of white Sandy beaches and tourism, and that's more on the North of the Island, is that.
And then in the South, you see many people Mauritians that literally, they look Indian, but they also look very African too. Many have locs, there’s a big Rastafarian community there, and it's just so dope. And that's so beautiful. There's just so many indigenous practices that still continue there. But then at the same time, if it’s not for vacations, you know of Mauritus because you see how much they're suffering there, from basically everything that we in the West are doing. They just had a huge oil spill that destroyed so much of their coral reef, and there's so much trash in the sea, more year on year. It was just a big eye-opener. So I think any experience where I come out of it, learning more about myself and just learning more about the history of the world and where people have moved and how that's created new identities and communities, I think is so amazing.
Favorite creative endeavor you’ve taken on so far? (continued…)
Obviously just being that my identity is... there's so many things going on there. I'm always fascinated. I always find similarities wherever I go. If I'm going to Africa, I'm going to Asia. I can go pretty much any place in the world and find some kind of similarity with something that is already within me. When I was there, I ended up finding out I had a relative there from India who had moved there and I met them, they were my grandma's cousins, cousins, cousins. I went to have tea with them in Mauritius. And I'm like, we're related, this is so crazy. You know? So as a global citizen, I think those types of experiences are the best things in the world,, because when we learn about other people, we learn about who we are as well.
It was a great time. And I went back again cause they invited me back and DJ’d a festival, which was sooo cool. It was so crazy because, obviously they're in Africa, but afrobeats hadn't even touched them yet at that point, So I was playing Burna Boy, and they're like, WHAT IS THIS? It was just crazy. I was with Sadé that time, as COZY, our DJ duo. We went and did a set out there, and it was crazy.
You are all about joy and the representation of Black and Brown joy-what is your mission and what would you like to see more of in photography relating to this?
My mission and what I think that it's my purpose to do. What I'm just trying to do with my work is contribute to a growing ever-growing (and thank God it's growing) An ever-growing kind of photography that depicts people of color, Brown, Black people in modes of joy and happiness. And that's it. I just want to add to that as much imagery as I possibly can so that it's out there in the world. So that we're balancing the scales of what we typically see. And then what I, I hope to see in photography is, especially now in my career is, you know, elevating, we're getting coin, whatever. I want to see more people like me. I want to continue to bring those people in.
Representation of Black and Brown joy (continued…)
I get a lot of my sense of purpose and that feeling of "Oh my god I'm doing the right thing" when I'm bringing other people along with me, whether that's as an art director, as a stylist, as a makeup artist, as another photographer, as a director, it's so important that we bring each other up into these spaces. And that's really what I want to see more of. This industry is not structured to be inclusive and welcoming. So I just think I'd rather create my own lane. And that's what I want to see more of, people utilizing and recognizing the value of their own personal networks and connections. I don't need some random old white lady who's an out-of-touch gatekeeper in that world. I don't need her to know who I am. If all the cool people that are actually doing shit, know who I am, you know? So those gatekeepers aren't going to be there forever. And I would much rather lead with authentic relationships, rather than trying to be friends with them so that they feature me, you know?
On Set…
What camera would you want to be your last?
I think it would have to be an Olympus OM-10 with a 50mm lens on it.
Do you prefer digital or analog? Why?
Oh my God - it's both, I can't decide. I like both. I shoot both. I love analog, obviously everybody's going to say, "I love analog, because of the colors." Same. I do, but I love digital for the fact that a lot of the times, especially when I was working music, it was all or nothing moments. And it was like, you have to get your shot right now or never. And I'm so grateful to digital photography for allowing me to be able to be as dynamic as I had to be, to capture those moments that are now a part of an artists history. I'd say both because it depends on the output. It depends on the use. I love film for the color. I love them for the experience. I love film for the connection that I have, the personal connection. I have my family on my mind, every time I'm holding my camera, I'm thinking ‘my grandfather held his camera and took photos with this camera, in the fifties.’ So this is amazing. Right? and then with digital, I'm so grateful for that speed and that technology to be able to mean that I can be that person in those moments, that's there to capture that moment. And now it's immortalized. So I love them both.
Candid or posed?
Posed like composition, candid subjects - if that makes sense.
Flash or no flash?
No flash, fuck the flash
What’s your process and planning when creative directing?
I absolutely love a treatment. My friends call me the deck queen, haha. I am obsessed with visually representing my ideas, to just another level. And so treatments for me, even if it's just for myself, I'm writing 20, 30 page treatments with references and levels and layers to every idea. Everything I do is very intentional. So it won't just be a pink chair, it'll be a pink chair because pink symbolizes this in this culture and the person we're shooting is of this culture and blah, blah, blah. So I like to explain my ideas very well to make sure that everybody on my team is really in sync with what I'm doing. So I think that's a really big part of my process. Then the second thing I would say is community. I am big on talking about my ideas. I'm very big on bouncing them off of other people. And usually I have a thought formed in my head, but it doesn't come out and become realized until I say it out loud. So I need people to be my sounding boards. Thankfully I have a lot of creative friends who do that, and the best thing is when you're able to collaborate with people in that way. When you can just say stuff and start building and developing concepts in your head.
Process and planning when creative directing? (continued…)
So that's usually how I approach everything. Especially with music videos and things like that, when I'm directing those, I'm always thinking about symbolism and layers. I think that's definitely important to me on the filmmaking and creative direction side. Even, well, I can't talk about the thing I'm making right now, but everything I do I try to go into the details like - let's not just use stock music in the background of a film, let's actually commission a person from the community we’re making this film for to make a soundtrack that’s bespoke so we can create a world. And I think I get a lot of that from my time at XL. I worked at XL for a while. My job there, I was head of communications. So I managed all of the social media for all the artists and the label.
I think impact is a really big part of my creative thinking. I'm always thinking about legacy impacts, how this can exist outside of just this thing. How can we build a world? And yeah, that's the way it's a huge part of my process. I would say across being a manager for musician or being a creative director or directing someone's music video-as a director, I think about the artists and who they are, not just, “here's a good idea.” It's what's right for this person and where they’re at in life and what story and what message are we trying to tell? You know, so being intentional, I would say it's the summing up of all of that.
You’ve worked on a ton of music videos, any one in particular you enjoyed making more-or which was the most challenging to make?
Every one has its own story challenges, to be honest with you. And I think people should know that, it is not a breeze every single time. There's always something. I would say Trey Songz (Circles) was the most challenging because it was the biggest budget shoot I had ever done at that point. I was so ambitious. I wanted to tell the story of three different couples lives, their whole lives, but in a three minute long video. There's three couples, so there's six people. And it was four outfit changes per person. So then you're going into these crazy numbers and we still have a 12 hour day and we still have to get performance here, performance there and all before the sunsets.
So it was a lot, it was a lot of wrapping my head around stuff. It was a lesson in, "Okay, girl, you're about to level up. you're going to have to start delegating. And you need to make sure that your ideas are crystal clear." And that's what is going to take you far as being able to actually articulate, you can have the ideas, but how you articulate them and pass them on to the rest of your team who are going to execute your vision. That is everything.
And so, yeah, that was definitely my most challenging because it was just the most things I've ever had going on simultaneously in multiple locations. And having to trust another person to be my second director, which I'd never done before. Not being able to see the shots as they're happening, because I'm with somebody else having to keep six different talent happy and upbeat, because a huge part of what I do is the, ‘wooh, yeahhh.. Yeah, vibes. I'm the vibes gal. And so that's really important that people feel they're having so much fun on this shoot. And I'm still thinking of all of that stuff at the same time as trying to direct them, as well trying to make sure the artist is happy with how everything is going.
Does your photography process impact your video directing process and vice versa?
My photography process impacts everything. I think I see everything on photos first, always. Everything is about the composition of the shot, and then I figure out what's the action after. So I would say it's always that way around. It's always photo then video. I just see things in images. So even when I'm thinking of music video ideas, when I start listening to the song, I just start seeing the pictures and then I start stitching it together, you know? So, yeah.
You started a thing called “Wear Yellow Project” and it focuses on people wearing yellow and the color yellow’s impact on us-what made you want to bring people’s attention to yellow?
Yeah. It's something I've always gravitated towards. It wasn't until I researched it, I was like, Oh, that's a deep, deep connection with this color. Just with humankind. It was the oldest known pigment that we've ever created that as humans, they found a pigment that was, I think 285,000 years old in caves in South Africa. We have been in the business, not the business, but we've been in the motion of making color for as long as time has existed. Right. So I think that there's something really powerful in that there's something really powerful in how it represents the sun. And it represents so many things in so many different cultures. It represents something so powerful. So I think that all humans have a connection to the color yellow. I wanted to just get into and explore the psychological effects as well. I've read that it helps instill feelings of joy and happiness amongst people wearing that color. I think that's really interesting and speaks to something that goes beyond what we can study psychologically, because it's deep, deep, deep within us, to have this color.
It started as the Wear Yellow Project, as just I guess just a way of dropping some joy into people's feeds. Then everywhere I would go, I would have this yellow cloth, which I used in photos, and even that was very symbolic for me.
“Wear Yellow Project” (continued…)
I used to live in Walthamstow in London and it's an area that's very diverse. It's a market. There's a South Asian community and there's also a big West African community. So again, I felt like I was home. I’d go to the market and you’d see these shops that are fabric shops and they're selling Kentes fabric but they're also selling Sarees. So it's this combination of the same fabric is being used to make a Gele or dress for a Nigerian wedding, but also it's being used to create a Saree or Salwar Kameez for an Indian wedding. And I think that's really dope. So I found this yellow fabric and I used to take it with me everywhere I went. And it would just be portraits in front of that that I took. It represents both sides of me, this, this fabric, and then this color just on top of it, I just love the symbolism of it all. So that's really what it's been. And then now, obviously I shared some of it in the book, but the intent behind my work on Yellow is that I'm gonna keep developing this ever-growing library of images of people in front of the color yellow, people of color. Eventually I want to have a big exhibition and make a real big coffee table book that is just all in yellow, so that's the plan.
35s & 45s: You're a very joyous person. So the fact that you've always sort of gravitated towards yellow, makes a lot of sense.
Mahaneela: haha, yeah definitely.
You represent a lot of different places-London, Ghana, India and Jamaica-do you pull different inspirations from each for certain projects, or does it all come through in everything you do creatively?
I've pulled certain inspiration from different places for certain projects. It really depends though on where I'm at within my own identity and that journey. There might be times where, as I said, my grandma passed away recently. I was at home. I was in London and my mom, my grandma, they're telling me loads of stuff about culture and I'm learning stuff. Then I'm feeling very Indian and I'm feeling very inspired by that side. And then I'm researching stuff about India and certain cultures and customs, and then that's going to influence the next work that I'm about to create, you know? And then it might be that I just come to go to Ghana and I'm traveling there and I'm , Oh my God, I'm absorbing all of this stuff. And then it, it manifests in another work that I do. So I think it depends a lot on where I am, but also how I feel about myself, because I do feel I'm all things at once. I'm never just one or the other. But sometimes certain parts of me present themselves and then I pay attention to those and find inspiration from it.
Is there any particular element of shooting you’d to tackle or explore that you have not?
I think it will be a real challenge for me to do black and white photography. I think that would be cool just to explore that, beyond just it's black and white, it's not black and white. There's so much more to black and white film stocks, and just playing around with the light and things that, you know, I think it will open up a whole avenue of more creativity once I actually get into that. So I would like to try that and just experience it, especially because it's stark contrast to what I’ve ever done. It's always color. It's always so much color. So seeing how I can interact with black & white, and actually how I can have a conversation with color is interesting to me.
When it comes to photography what moves you to shoot?
A feeling within me that I can't articulate, something that tells me, “bring up your camera, that looks cool.” Could be of a tree, could be of a thing on the side of the street, could be of a person. Something tells me this is a good photo and I don't really know what that is yet, but it just is and it always has been...
