An interview with Jessie Li, photographer and co-founder of Hu
J: “Most of the time I'll start by thinking of an aesthetic, a set design, textures, that kind of thing. I’ll have two or three shots in mind that I know that I want going into it. Other than that I’m pretty much just winging it. I make a space and see what happens when I put myself in it. That’s for my more fashion-type shoots."
"For my more fine arts type stuff, it starts with days of me scribbling down words that are barely associated with each other. I’ll hash it out forever and ever until I finally decide on a single representation that is best or at least the most manageable.”
HK: "Why portraiture? Why fashion?"
J: “Fashion is something I’ve been interested in since…. like birth. My parents always tell me funny anecdotes about how when I was a baby, before I could talk, if they put me in a mismatched outfit I would cry until they changed me into a nice outfit that was pretty. It [fashion] was always something that I liked. When I was younger I did a little print modeling, so I was always interested in that world. When I started doing photography, I didn’t actually start with fashion, but my photos were influenced by fashion photography.”
“With portraiture, I just kind of fell into it- maybe not by accident. It just was what I was drawn to when I first picked up the camera, and I was aware of that. I feel like if you are able to look at another person, you’re able to relate to them more. I like thinking about life, and the mind, and the human experience. Thats where my mind typically wanders."
HK: "Who do you typically photograph?"
J: “Usually its my friends, because they’re beautiful, and willing, and kind. Honestly I’m trying to break out of that, but for pretty much all the time I’ve been shooting I’ve been working with my friends. I’m able to communicate the vision to them, and it’s always fun.”
HK: "How would you describe your friends?"
J: “I think all my friends are a little…. different. Whether we’re artists, we’ve gone through the same experiences, etc., we’re all very open-minded- creatively speaking. We’re also open in a way in which we're willing to hear one another and accept each other. I guess what unifies us is just being able to talk about things that we’ve gone through, no matter what their scale is."
"It’s nice to have fellow creatives. Like yesterday a friend sent me his poetry portfolio just to show me the vibe of what he’s doing and get my opinion. Sometimes, when I’m working on projects for art school I’ll call up one of my artistic friends and they’ll sit with me and help me hash out my ideas. It’s a good common ground.”
HK: "You and a friend recently launched a collaborative magazine for art and photography. How did Hu Zine come about?"
J: “When I got to UF, one of my main goals was to find a passion project, because I had stuff like that in high school as a photo editor for yearbook and running Film Fest. Those were my two things that I dedicated a lot of time and creativity towards. In college, I knew I wanted to do something fashion-y, where fashion meets art, because that’s the realm where I like to exist. All my friends were like ‘just start your own thing. just do it,’ and I always felt like ‘no, I can’t do it by myself ; its too much.’
"There was this girl, Cami, our other founder and editor in chief. We were following each other on Instagram, and we were kind of just aware of each other’s presence. We bumped into each other a month or so ago, and we said half-jokingly that we were both kinda, sorta, considering starting our own thing. After that, we met to discuss it, and all of a sudden it was a real thing. It came from a desire and a yearning for something specific, and I couldn’t really expect someone else to just reach into my brain and give me that specific thing that I wanted. If I want something like this to exist, I had to make it somehow. I think that’s what we’re both doing, and we’re really excited to see where it goes.”
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