Hannah KhymychSandra DieckmannAraeSteadman Gbajumo JuniorDexter Orszagh Alex FiskMac ScottJamie KendrickFreddie NockoldsRob Halhead-Baker

Featuring

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A r t . D e s i g n . M u s i c

MY PANDA SHALL

FLY

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2012 © All Rights Reserved WatchMePivot Magazine

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Watch Me Pivot is a new multidisciplinary platform founded by graphic designer David Hinga, for young creatives to showcase their work through our online blog and our quarterly magazine. We showcase work from every area of the creative industry, from graphic design, illustration, product design to conceptual fine art, sculpture, painting, photog-raphy, film, sound and music. We hope to provide our viewers with more than just great work but to showcase the unseen talents hiding in their bedrooms and classrooms. Hopefully by doing so we can inspire more great work and connect a wide selection of work with a greater audience of art lovers and artists.

Besides primarily working as an in-house publishing platform to showcase emerging talents, WatchMePivot works secondly as a creative studio that caters to small and established clients. Check out our Creative Studio page on our site for more info about the services we provide. www.watchmepivot.com

Submitting WorkIf you would like to submit work to the Watch Me Pivot blog all you have to do is send us an email with a few small jpeg images of your work, a short description of your style, what you do and lastly a link to your site/blog/flickr.

Send emails to: submit@watchmepivot.com

Contact

The TeamMagazine Designer/Writer/Editor: David Hingawww.davidhinga.com/

Cover Illustration by Jamie Kendrickwww.jamiekendrick.com/

Film Reviews by Tohko Kanzakiwww.tohkokanzaki.blogspot.com/

Info / General enquiries : info@watchmepivot.comSubmitting work : submit@watchmepivot.comCreative studio: creativestudio@watchmepivot.com

Follow usTwitter: @WatchMePivotFacebook: www.facebook.com/watchmepivotMixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/WatchMePivot/

ContributorsSteadman Gbajumo Junior, Dexter Orszagh Alex Fisk, Mac Scott, Jamie Kendrick, Freddie Nockolds, Rob Halhead-Baker, Hannah Khymych, My Panda shall fly, Arae, Sandra Dieckmann

WatchMePivot Magazine

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FRESH FACES 6 - 19 Fresh Faces is where we showcase new and emerg-ing talented creatives, ranging from all areas of art and design . In this issue: Steadman Gbajumo JuniorMac ScottDexter OrszaghAlex FiskRob Halhead-BakerFreddie Nockolds

CONTENTS

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REVIEWS 22 - 23Taxi Driver

Eyes Wide Shut

FEATURED ARTISTS 26 - 32The Featured artists section is a collection of interviews from up and coming talents, each bringing something new to the table in each of the industries. This issue features: London based Dj and producer, My Panda Shall Fly.New York Fashion Photographer Hannah Khymych.New York Producer Arae.East London based illustrator Sandra Dieckmann.

In this issue’s review section we’ve decided to review two classic films, that if you haven’t already, you need

to see after reading these reviews.

www.flickr.com/photos/32813121@N08/

Steadman Gbajumo Junior

Here’s only a small selection of pho-tographs by 19 year old photographer and Greenwich university film student Steadman Gbajumo Junior.For a long time now I’ve been constant-ly surprised and inspired by Steadman’s work. His developed a very refined photo-journalistic style, capturing mo-ments and scenes of friends, events, places and the people he meets during his day. He’s by far one of the most talented and interesting photographers I know for his age.

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|Fresh Faces

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Fe

at

ur

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MY PANDA

SHALL FLY

|Interview

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So where did the name ‘My Panda Shall Fly’ come from?

At the time, all three of us went to a library, and I remember us picking a book at random, blindly choos-ing a word and juggling them around to come up with what we are known by today.

Describe your sound?

I think if you imagine a tall dolphin wearing a red toga making Ethiopian food under the ocean, that’d be a good description.

So what came first djing or music production?

I can’t actually remember. During high school, the sound of UK Garage was everywhere, we’d record the very best of pirate radio onto cassette and start play-ing it on our walkmans, and soon enough started buying vinyl and saving up for turntables. I never actually owned a pair of decks for a long time, I always used to go practice on my friends’ setups.

I think soon after I got into playing around with early versions of FL Studio (ver-sion 2 if I remember cor-rectly) whenever I could. More often than not avoid-ing GCSE school work in favour of “making beats”.

Skip forward a number of years and I release my debut EP on an imprint of Wichita Recordings run by Dam Mantle.

Which one do you prefer?

That’s a tough one, I love DJ’ing and did it quite heav-ily about three years back with the explosion of Dub-step but now I’m focusing mostly on my production and live material.

I still love them both and couldn’t choose between the two!

So tell us a little bit about your new EP ‘Let’s Vibrate Together”...

This is going to be my next release coming out on the Five Easy Pieces label which I wrote and co-produced along with a new Internet buddy Benjamin Jackson. We befriended each other a couple of months back and started to swap ideas over the web until we got some basic ideas down. We then spent time getting deeper into the music and mixes until we’d have worked on the material for long enough for us to realise we were both happy with them.

We’ve also got three amazing remixes from the likes of Cloud Boat, patten & Chairman Kato on the release.

Got any other new mate-rial in the works?

Yeah I’ve just finished a new concept record with my engineer Asier Leatxe of six tracks like nothing I’ve ever made before; a surreal mix-ture of worldly percussion, ambient fusion and exotic voices.

It took about five months to

write, record and mix-down. Its been a mad journey but it was totally worth it. I’m currently shopping around for a good home for it. I can’t wait to see what peo-ple think of it.

What inspires your music?

A lot of things I wouldn’t dare to mention here..

Are there any other artists that you think are really killing it at the moment?

The people who’ve remixed my next record all have a very exciting 2012 ahead of them as do the artists that also remixed my first EP I released in April last year. I love them all.

What’s on the horizon for you?

A lot more music and music-related projects. I’m going to be releasing a lo-fi MPSF project with music that was originally con-ceived around 2007/2008 when we were a three-piece very soon - as well as another collaborative project that I made with an old pal who makes music under the alias “Adventure Elephant”.

I’m going to be trying out a lot of different things this year. I’m very excited about it all.

www.soundcloud.com/mpsfwww.facebook.com/mypandashallfly

What camera(s) are you using at the moment? Currently I am working with Canon 5DMKII.

Lenses?I like to use Canon L series fixed lenses.

Flash units?Don’t like using flesh units.

Retouching setup? Macbook Pro with an Eizo screen and a walcom tablet. Knowing your equipment is half the battle for a good retouching process. Also collaborating your monitor is super important.

Now the good stuff.

Can you remember the first time you picked up a camera and captured your first photograph?It was so long ago. I was back in high school when I bought my first SLR. But when I was a little kid back in Ukraine I had a polaroid camera which I used to take pictures of nature/animals. But it wasn’t until I was 16 that I wanted to really get into fashion photography and experience with it.

Anyone who’s followed you in the last few years since the hannah havoc days on deviantart to where you are now can easily see you are a very driven person, what drives your passion to be-come a successful fashion photographer? When I started my account on DA it was more for my “personal” and self portrait work. I was just experiment-ing before I had the chance to work with real models. A lot of it helped me with retouching because I pretty much started learning the retouching process on self portraits. Always nice to see a before/after of yourself, just kidding. I decided that I should stop taking pictures of myself and focus on my career as a photographer. I think a lot of people got upset with me for not using my DA account anymore. Ive been working very hard outside of the internet life to get to where I am right now. You know what drives me? Waking up in a the morning and knowing I don’t have to do a 9-5 job at an office. Also I chose this path so

there is no other choice for me. A photographer I work for once told me that “You can’t make a plan B, you just have to make it. You have no other choice”. That makes me work really hard for my work.

What’s the most impor-tant thing you’ve learnt since starting out as a fashion photographer?I have learned so many things. One I will point out. Be professional , always.

When did you make the conscious decision to pur-sue a career as a fashion photographer?It was something ever since i started taking pictures I wanted to do. Definitely not until I was 16 when I started testing with models that I was 150% sure.

Why fashion photogra-phy? Are there any other forms of photography that you’re in to?I am a big fan of fashion. A lot of people don’t under-stand it. It’s a form of art for designers,makeup,hair,stylist,photographers,directors,etc can use to express the creative side of it. Mainly editorial part of fashion is when the full team can cre-ate inspiring photographs. I’m very much interested in portraits and nudes as well. Something I am definitely experimenting with now more.

Do you get many chances to work in other US states or in other countries?

How does it differ from working in New York? And would you ever like to work anywhere else?So far it’s only been NYC. I am currently in the re-mak-ing of my portfolio and once that is done I would like to go out to London/Paris. I love travelling and if my job offers that, why not?

How has the internet served as a tool for you to establish yourself within the photography world? What would you say are the best means of com-munication and network-ing platforms available online for photographers?To be honest with you I used to have all the social networking Facebook/twit-ter/tumblr. It helps people from all over the world to view your work but when it comes down to the busi-ness side of it , it really is about meeting the clients. Social networking won’t help you book a job, at least from my experience. What’s the most interest-ing shoot you’ve ever worked on? Who was it with? Where and when?

HANNAH

KHYMYCH

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Recently I shot Zippy from Elite models for an editorial. It was a nude/fashion story featuring SS 2012. Very different from my work and it was a lot of fun. Working with really great people and talent.

What has been the big-gest inspiration for you so far? Many things inspire me. There are many photogra-phers/models/stylist and books/music that help me come up with concepts for my shoots.

Fashion photography is by no means an easy industry to get into, how did you get to where you are today? And do you have any advice for up and coming photogra-phers who might want to follow in your footsteps?You really need to work hard to get somewhere anywhere. The fashion industry is very tough. I started out retouching as an intern as well as interning at a studio for a while where I learned many things about the equipment/post produc-tion. After I was fortunate enough to work for some really great photographers as a retoucher. Learning a lot during the process. I would tell someone that they need to work really hard. Be very professional and be confident in your work. Mainly don’t be lazy and work and test and learn as much as you can.

What’s it like being such a young person in such a big industry?I don’t ever really think

about it like that. I work just like anyone else in this industry does.

Are there any photogra-phers who you look up to? Or any who have had a positive influence on the way you work?One of my favourites is Helmut Newton. Recently I have been inspired a lot by his nude work. Definitely has made me want to ex-periment more with angles/light. Also keeping the post production to a minimum. Keeping it clean but still real and beautiful.

If you could work with anyone on a shoot, who would it be with, photog-rapher and/or model?I would love to work with so many people. I have top 6 models I would love to shoot : Karlie Kloss, Char-lotte Free, Eniko Miha-lik, Natasha Poly, Bambi Northwood Blyth, andDaria Werbowy.

What you do get up to when you’re not work-ing on a shoot or in the studio?Mainly spending time just hanging out with my boyfriend/friends. Reading books or going to the beach (when its warm out). I love to travel as well.

Finally where do you hopefully see yourself in the next few years?I still see myself living in NYC , hopefully traveling more for work. Living in a studio apartment where I could work in and live. Let’s just see where the next couple of years take me.

|Interview

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