Sahara's Mirage & The Desert Koi
Photographer: Storm Nguyen
1. What significant life experiences or events have influenced and shaped your artistic vision?
As a Creative Director and Photographer, much of my artistic vision is informed by my intersectional identities and experiences as a Queer First-Generation Asian American. Ever since I was little, I have found an innate desire within myself to find a creative medium that resonated with me the most. I struggled a lot with finding ways in how my identities could co-exist without feeling like a burden or outlier to any of the communities I identified with. There is a large stigma of being queer within my identity as a Southeast Asian but there is a lot of racial prejudice and discrimination I face in many queer spaces as well. This provoked a lot of feelings and emotions for me that I often found myself bottling up. It became necessary for me to have an outlet to release these negative tensions and after trying many various artistic forms of expression– I found a lot of peace in photography and fashion as vessels to illustrate stories born from my own creativity and imagination.
I recall being an extreme introvert during my formative years and often struggled with asserting myself and my boundaries especially in situations where I’ve been picked on for my feminine nature or appearance. Having an artistic medium to use as a form of “escape” was often a way in which I could genuinely strip away all the heavy weight that is associated with these comments. I was able to create a world from scratch where I am the center of a universe full of abundant joy, where I can critically reflect on the struggles of intersectionality, where I can just have a space tobe metaphorical, weird, and straight up experimentative. My Artistic vision is my universe and I am able to warp it how I see fit; I can choose how my life experiences dictate the meaning of my own universe.
2. Collaboration often sparks fresh creativity. Can you share an example of a collaboration that led to an unexpected and exciting artistic outcome?
An example of a collaboration that led to an unexpected and exciting artistic outcome would actually be this editorial! Entitled “Sahara’s Mirage & Desert Koi”, this project was made possible with a team of 5 including myself. As a creative photographer, my signature style often has strong aquatic themes— as a nod to my name (Storm). In the conceptualization stage of this editorial, I found myself very drawn to the fact that there are places in this world where the Desert meets the Ocean which to me is a very ironic occurrence because we as humans don’t often associate bodies of water (that are often cool) to a scorching hot climate like the desert.
When these two different climates come together– they create a Coastal desert which in my eyes represents the balance of two polarizing natural wonders. Furthermore, what specifically fascinated me was the fact Koi fish can be found in the body of water that surrounds the Sahara Desert: the Mediterranean sea. While this information isn’t necessarily uncommon knowledge, the mere existence of a desert meeting the ocean was extremely intriguing. With this thought in mind– I began to ponder on how I could translate this idea into a fashion editorial. However I found myself quite stumped on how I could effectively portray this vision so I reached out to my dear friend and designer: Ten Velour. Someone I admire greatly for being unafraid to experiment with various textures and unique silhouettes. Velour is someone I frequently collaborate with and in many instances where I find myself stuck in a creative loophole– he is someone that is able to disrupt that cycle and invoke a fiery sense of inspiration and motivation. When I had brought this idea to him and expressed feeling somewhat stumped– he spontaneously presented me with sketches that perfectly embodied the essence of a Koi fish. Naturally all of the pieces began to fall in place– shortly after conceptualizing a design with Ten, I onboarded my friend Vinnie Song as a model who in my eyes can easily interpret any avant-garde concept; a fellow creative director Maxine Embry who I believe to be someone that has a strong eye for refinement and is able to cohesively tie together a lot of visual elements in a shoot and Nail artist Lila Beach who I had only just met through this collaborative project but was easily able to design a nail set that perfectly encaptures “Sahara’s Mirage & The Desert Koi”. In many ways, this editorial allowed me to generate new magic with previous collaborators while also making room to rejoice with new creative collaborators. The end product of this editorial is something that we as a collective team are extremely proud of!
3. Walk us through a specific project that challenged your creative boundaries. How did you approach it, and what did you learn from the experience?
I believe every single creative project comes with a unique set of challenges that artists are tasked with tackling in order to be successful in their execution of said project. With that being said, “Sahara’s Mirage & The Desert Koi” came with a flurry of its own unique challenges that I wrestled with. Initially, this editorial was meant to be part of a three look editorial series that captures the harmonious relationship of the Sun and Moon as natural phenomenons that are polar opposites and yet somehow create a sense of balance and unity within each other’s existence. In this very early stage, we can see the theme of “balance” was still at play so I always knew this was an integral theme and message I wanted to convey in this editorial. I had already shot two visuals embodying the Moon’s spirit prior to the “Sahara’s Mirage & The Desert Koi” look but after seeing the two shoots side by side– I was not sold on the idea and felt a lack of cohesion between the three visuals together. Oftentimes we as creatives can be our biggest critics and in this circumstance, I found myself extremely judgemental towards my own creativity and storyline but to combat this challenge I was experiencing– I went back to the drawing board and completely scrapped the two Moon visuals. I was trying to piece together something that didn’t naturally flow in my head just because I already had a set concept in mind in how I wanted this project to look like. As a result, I was able to think more freely on how I could better tie together this concept in a way that felt complete to me and that is how “Sahara’s Mirage & The Desert Koi” came to be what it represents and holds currently. The biggest solution for a creative challenge in my honest opinion is the ability to be flexible and adaptive– if you feel something doesn’t quite fully align together, you don’t need to force fit the puzzle pieces together. As such, I will find another way in how I can better illustrate a story with the Moon visuals I shot as a separate entity from this editorial.
4. In the ever-evolving art world, what do you believe sets your work apart and makes it unique or groundbreaking?
The Art world is ever-evolving and in my eyes, everything in this universe is a matter of subjectivity and taste. I understand that there is not one individual artist that can be universally loved and appreciated by everyone in the world and this is something that I often inform myself. I believe what sets my work apart and what makes it unique is my ability to tell a story and how immersed this story is in my craft as a photographer. It is essential to me that I think of how every little visual detail in an editorial connects to the overarching storyline and I believe that is demonstrated within the breadth of my work. As an artist, I feel an extremely deep connection to the element of water and so many of my editorials carry aquatic themes and visual elements but despite this, each project is uniquely distinctive in its own way while also remaining cohesive as a collective body of work. Every artist should have a unique creative identity and I believe mine can be distinguished by its oceanic nature and soul. For example– a motif you will always see in my work are pearls– which have been a significant symbol in my own life as it makes me feel tied to the sea. Not only this but much of my own life experiences are formed by this idea of “water”; nearly 65% of my zodiac birth chart consists of water signs.
Like a body of water– my work also embraces fluidity, when it comes to the process of creating a shoot down to the visual direction and storyline of my editorials themselves– you can sense a flowy nature to the art I make and that is also something I believe is very unique. While I do recognize that as an artist, I am also constantly and continuously developing and growing in terms of my technical skills and creative vision but I do believe that as it stands, my work is very identifiable and that is my ultimate wish as an artist.
5. As you reflect on your journey, are there any specific goals or milestones you've set for your artistic career in the coming years?
In the coming years, I hope to be able to have an expansive body of work that is celebrated and deemed as thought-provoking and visually praised. Considering the concept of fluidity once again– I believe life has to be fluid as well. I have wishes and goals for myself to be internationally recognized as an artist but I recognize this journey as a long process and something that requires me to be adaptable, flexible and gracious towards whatever and wherever the universe decides is right for me in a given moment. I recently hit 5 years as a practicing Creative Photographer and I am mesmerized at how far I have come in terms of my own technicality, proficiency and even attention to visual details. There has been so much growth made in these past years that in the next 5 years, I can only envision myself elevating to the highest version of my artistic self as possible. It is my intention to be a full-time practicing Artistic Creative and putting myself out there in new ways I believe is the key to fulfilling that goal.
6. How did you discover Mob and what made you choose us? <3
I first discover MobJournal in 2021 on Instagram. As a young Creative, I have worked closely with another youth-led magazine RiceSpiceMagazine and its editor-in-chief: Sydney Ling. With RS, I have primarily served as a Staff Photographer and Editor, while working on the team– it opened me to a world of many aspirants aiming to create a magazine publication space and community aimed at platforming and uplifting Gen-Z creatives and their visionary work. As such, I recognize MobJournal as a platform with the same mission of paving way to a newer generation of creatives and I had made it an intention to one day choose Mob as a platform I would like to showcase my work.
-
"Sahara's Mirage & The Desert Koi" is a fashion editorial conceptualized and developed by Photographer (Storm Nguyen) with the aim of capturing a Koi fish's essence and its symbolic themes of balance and perseverance inspired by Japanese folklore. Additionally, this editorial also draws from the universal representations of the sun, desert and ocean as a beacon of hope, renewal and transformation.
In collaboration with Seattle-Based Designer: Ten Velour, this editorial features a stunning crinkled orange-white ombre mermaid trumpet gown drawing inspiration from the ornamental depiction of the koi fish (first found on 18th century paintings in the Niigata region during the Japanese Edo period). The Koi fish is now widely practiced and understood as an aquatic symbol of good luck, ambition, perseverance, and strength in many Asian cultures today.
The koi's legendary journey upstream against powerful currents, culminating in its transformation into a beautiful dragon, embodies resilience and triumph over adversity. Inspired by silhouettes, color palette and fabric construction seen in Miss Sohee’s F/W 2020 “The Girl in Full Bloom” collection, Ten Velour's "Desert Koi" dress blends elements of the desert and ocean, mirroring the structure and texture of sand dunes fused with the fluidity and vibrant palette of a koi fish.
This editorial is also supported by Nail Artist: Lila Beach, who crafted a customized nail set drawing elements of a desert beach, seashells and flowers, Model: Vinnie Song who is spotlighted as the muse and vessel for this conceptualized and Photographer/Creative Director: Maxine Embry who assisted with the visual elements of the creative direction and spearheaded lighting design.
-
Creative Director/Photographer/Retoucher: Storm Nguyen
Fashion Designer/Wardrobe Stylist: Ten Velour
Model/Makeup Artist: Vinnie Song
Lighting Assistant/Creative Director/creative assist: Maxine Embry
Nail Artist: Lila Beach