PINKY STORIES
Emma Hoareau and Frances Davison
Emma and Frances are a pair of quintessential millennials, inspirational and multi talented, with lives and careers shared on social platforms. Here they share their friendship story, spent drinking coffee, shooting beautiful moments and chasing shadows around the city.
DH: When did you know Frances was a real world friend and not just an “Insta” girlfriend?
Emma: We actually met around six years ago, before Instagram was really a thing, when we were both photographing shows at Fashion Week, so we didn’t compare ourselves in the way people might nowadays. Nowadays Frances and I are both photographers who also work under other titles (welcome to the world of millennial slashies I guess!) so I think that bond made us actual friends, as well as just fellow photographers.
DH: What’s special about working with a friend like Frances professionally?
I trust her opinion on work I’m doing. We meet up for coffee to swap work successes, horror stories and ideas. It’s great to have found someone who I genuinely get on with, who loves the fashion world, but can take it with a pinch of salt too.
DH: What does photography mean to you?
Emma: Photography means so much to me, if I take a photo I’m happy with then my day is made. It just started as a hobby when I was younger, I’ve always been in love with capturing moments in time; beautiful details that others might not notice When I started my blog it became more important, so I invested in better kit and when I officially made the jump from journalism to photography in 2014, I learned a lot about professional shooting and editing for clients. At the heart of it all though, it’s definitely a life-long love.
DH: What’s your most treasured photograph?
Emma: That’s a hard one, but I’d say my most treasured photograph is one of my mother and grandmother that I took on an old Leica film camera. I love it because it reminds me of what feels like another lifetime, it’s a captured moment that will last forever. In that sense photographs hold a similar sentimentality to jewellery, they’re very often handed down and they both hold memories, so treasuring them is a way of showing our love.
DH: Tell us about your “dual professions” (influencer and photographer) Do you favour one?
Emma: In this day and age, it’s so easy to work freelance, all you need is an internet connection. I started my blog at university, as a creative outlet from my studies and through sharing my photography and thoughts for years, it grew into something I never expected. I never planned on being an “Influencer” and I really struggle with that term, but I feel very lucky to have created a place that people come back to again and again. Photography as a profession is certainly newer to me, but I love having the two aspects to my job, as I would get tired of just doing one thing. Having both pushes me to learn more and yet they’re so interwoven too. I shoot constantly for my blog. Whether it’s still-life’s, beauty products, self-portraits or hotel interiors, my camera is always in my hand.
DH: You’ve made your name in the industry working with some of the Instagrams “major players” tell us about how you bring their individual characters to life through the photography process?
Frances: I think shooting bloggers is an unusual process, it’s about finding an angle on how they want to be seen, not about how I want to portray them. They’re not models and they’re not a blank canvas’, they have opinions and visions which make them all different. I’m lucky that I get to work with friends and that they’re all super photogenic and (for the most part) comfortable shooting in public.
DH: Tell us about what photography means to you and how you found your creative medium?
Frances: Emma and I actually met as photographers at Fashion Week – sitting on the floor at a show! We became friends and have developed our passion for photography together. I don’t consider myself a super technical photographer, but I’m very passionate about colour and light. Photography is just something that’s stuck and I’m always learning, whether from friends like Emma or when I’m on the production and styling side of a shoot, watching another photographers work. It’s fun shooting with people who are happy to get on board with being a bit irreverent and finding something awkward or unexpected.
DH: What was it like to be on the other side of the lens for Pinkys by Dinny project?
Frances: I find it tough having my photo taken and I think that’s in large part due to the volume of imagery we’re exposed to every day, which can warp your perspective somewhat. When someone loves the photos I take of them it’s an amazing feeling, but it can be tough sometimes seeing beautiful women at their most self-critical, when looking at shots of themselves.
DH: Does it feel different to shoot a friend or family, rather than paid client?
I rarely pull out my ‘proper’ camera off the clock with friends and family, though I do love shooting on my phone, I always want to be able to reference back, whether that’s buildings, details, cute dogs or just beautiful shadows.
DH: Tell us a funny secret about your work or a project you’ve done with Emma?
Frances: I can’t think of many stories suitable for publication (!) but lets just say Emma and I relate to a lot of the same freelance struggles facing each other, silly things like fielding emails from people calling me Tilly and Emma Lolita because of our Instagram handles, that and a good measure of skinny dipping on press trips – if that’s not bonding I don’t know what is!
Photo Credit @lifeofyablon
