Malibu: Timeless Luxuries
office sat down with the creative duo to understand their constant collobration and the inspiration behind it all.
How long have you two been collaborating?
Barbara Braccini— We met a year ago, but we had friends in common. Just never met in real life.
Igor Pjörrt— I remember hearing Barbara’s name and then that she made music and everything. I started following her two music projects, but at the time I didn’t know it was the same person actually. I was a huge fan. When she contacted me the first time I was really happy. It’s just such a pleasure when something that makes sense comes to you. To be able to respond to music for once was really rewarding.
How would you guys describe your creative style together?
BB— Chill.
IP— Chill but also maybe coy. It’s hiding something. There’s still some self awareness to it. There is a vision of timeless luxury. We are both attracted to these images of beaches, sunsets, or whatever. I think it’s this thing of wanting to be somewhere ideal like paradise.
What drew you to each other, how did you meet and end up working together?
BB— We kind of knew of each other because we had friends in common, so for a long time, for years, im talking almost 10 years or something.
IP— Ya I think so.
BB—Just knew of our names I guess and then one time I was asked by Fact Magazine to have this interview and nice photoshoot, they asked if I could think of a photographer and I couldn’t apart from Igor. I had seen one of his photos it was just a photo of the sunset, it was a scan on some random instagram account, some library I think. I just had this sunset photo in mind and knew we kind of knew each other and thought it would be the easiest person/ the one that made the most sense visually.
IP—It was interesting for us because Barbara has always been in charge of her visual identity. She built this whole persona with her music, thats how I see it at least, but the visual identity was a huge part of that. I felt really honored to be let in, that process is usually so controlled. It was nice because it happened so naturally, we trusted eachothers sensibilities and we kind of just went from there. We didnt plan each shot, we just shared images all the time, and went to the studio. It was super nice because, I went to the studio with my best friend and Barbara went with her best friend. They were kind of assisting us with dressing her or throwing feathers on her. It felt really intimate, like a safe space, not like suddenly Barbara was in front of a whole team and vulnerable. It felt really nice, like we were just getting to know each other at the same time.
What is the creative process like?
BB— The nice thing is that, first of all, we do share a very similar, if not the same mood board, so that was a nice way to work. It’s not as if I wasn't sure about some of the potential ideas, we literally had the same ideas or liked the same color schemes. In that sense it’s really nice, I get to let go of the control a little bit, but not too much. I know I can trust Igor. I just know it is going to work out.
IP— I think for me, this exchange marked a sort of transition in my own work where Barbara exposed me to a certain sensibility that I hadn't explored as much. That moment when we worked on the Fact Magazine shoot it was kind of a turning point where I realized this is what I really like doing. To work with artists whose work I like and also to work on peoples visual identity. In my work, I have always had music as reference, more than photography. With Barbara everything made sense. The background I come from, where my photography comes from, has a lot to do with where I grew up, an island. It is very connected to the same feelings as her music, or I guess you could say ambient as a genre. Tied to subjects of distance and longing, its very meditative and turned inwards yet outwards at the same time. This attitude I felt in Barbara’s music was really important in activiating this inspiration to make work together. That’s why I feel like it was so easy for me, she triggered something that was there already.
BB—The images that Igor made for me, for the Fact Magazine interview, then we went on to doing the whole photography for my EP; It brings to life the music. It gives it a physical sort of world that doesn’t exist. I mean it exists, most photos are made in Madeira island. The way we selected the photos just gives hints to where it could be, but it could be anywhere. It is perfect with the music to give it some life and visual representation that I couldn't do myself. There’s only so much I could do with my Iphone or blurry selfies.
Can you talk about your relationships to Madeira Island and how you picked it for the photos?
IP— Technically we didn't even choose to shoot there, I was moving out of Madeira to Paris but I knew I was going to do that shoot so I shot a bunch of landscape in Madeira, then we did collages. We shot Barbara in studio to kind of make it look like it was shot on location. Then in the summer we were discussing the EP and I just went to Madeira for summer holiday. I proposed to Barbara to come. Not necessarily for that but just to visit. I would carry my camera with me everywhere and we would just shoot everyday. That was the fun part, it was very spontaneous in the sense that we would go to the beach and try this idea we discussed before. It wasn’t a one-day production. Each day was different. It was a slow process. It was so extended. To me thats what it’s like being home, time feels so stretched. There’s no urgency and people live so differently than in the big city like Paris.
BB— All the feelings he described with being in Madeira, I can sort of relate to because I’m from a small town in the south of France, very suburbian. Time passes similarly, I get the idea. I share that with Igor, time is very long and you do things differently with the people there. It just felt like when you're a teenager, you're starting to be a bit artistic and you're starting to explore. It felt like a little project, to pass time somehow, no pressure. We just tried things out, time would pass, we would go eat with Igor’s mom... drive around... it was just like holiday. The EP images are our holiday summed up.
IP— I remember you described your new EP as boring, I feel like that’s a luxury we had. That we could afford to be bored all the time. Just be bored together and listen to music all the time. I feel like those moments are also important, not just in the music but in life— its part of making a connection with someone, being comfortable in silence.
Malibu, how does Igor bring to life the vision you have for yourself and your art?
BB — I do have a mood board of just images, old fashion ads or renaissance paintings. I feel like my mood boards are always the same maybe the color scheme changes a bit but not that much. I’m not going to reinvent myself just now. For this EP I wanted to be wearing a black dress standing slightly turned to the camera but in the end we did something different. We go from my moodboard and Igor seems the vibe then he just proposes ideas. We had a sort of meeting in a cafe and he had drawn some little ideas. We were surprised by what we did in real life, we let ourselves be surprised.
IP — Our point of deprarture was very much the Prada ads, especially the FW ‘98 one. The cover of the EP is a direct reference of that. Another revelation to me about Barbara was how both the visuals and music she's attracted to are kind of muted down. I started to understand the richness in doing very little, very well. Her music is the same, it is very hard to not be a maximalist and imstead use the right sounds just enough for something to awaken someones sensibilities. The same happened with the images, I used to be so into vibrant colors but the moment we started toning the images down everything gained a timeless quality. We were concerned about the aspect of something being timeless, already thinking about the images in retrospect. What will they look like in ten years, what will they mean for people in ten years, or even what could they have meant ten years ago?
