‘Photography is my way of expressing and feeling the world, another medium to interpret the things that are around me. I want to see more honesty in the world and photography somehow lets me to discover and connect with it.’
Words that most accurately would describe her are Honesty, Exploration, Quality and Devotion to Work. Laima Dance is someone who has very different educational, professional and personal backgrounds. With a 1st class degree in IT from the University of West of Scotland, she is a talented creative who is not afraid to take up new challenges: she has been Trisickle Magazine photo editor and did photo shoot production and artist management internship at Motif Management in Barcelona. Additionally over the years she has also developed her own projects, such as t-shirt line, drawing collections and experimental videos.
Laima’s relationship with photography began back in 2003 when she took her brothers camera just to play around. She acknowledges that she has always been artistic and that she sees the world visually. The ability to experiment with different technologies and software applications has helped her to discover that photography is the fastest and most versatile way to express her visions.
After seeing Laima’s portfolio, you would never tell that this person has never in her life studied photography and that it is all learnt through self-discovery, experimenting and ‘go-try-see what happens’ method. Laima says: ‘It is easier for me to learn things in my own way by going through errors and failures because then I learn both: what is wrong and what is right not just what is right. Studying books has never given me such an experience.’ Countless hours photographing, sleepless nights editing – that all has built Laima’s self-education in the field.
What is unique about Laima’s photography style is that she successfully merges portraits with commercial fashion. Laima admits that fashion is one of her passions and she believes that it’s an additional way how to express one’s personality. Nevertheless, Laima is also inspired by contemporary American photographer Ryan McGinley and artistic Australian photographer Nirrimi. She explains: ‘These young photographers whose work I admire are not poisoned with what industry expects from them, they just do their own thing. Ryan’s and Nirrimi’s photos are honest and that is what I am going for in my photos too – to capture the pureness and honesty of people with no pretending’.
This summer Laima has been busy travelling: from the beaches down at the South of Portugal and scenic Lisbon streets, up to rainy Glasgow and London, following with casual wandering on rainy Paris boulevards and then going across the Atlantic to look at the grandest canyon of all and discover Denver, CO. Throughout her journey she learnt the greatness of stepping out from one’s own comfort zone, and that if really desired – everything is possible in life. Laima is strong, dedicated and talented young photographer who has much success ahead of her and Brillante brings her as the first inspirational example that represents Brillante’s vision and values. Laima also collaborated with Brillante on her travels by bringing with her the brand new Brillante T-shirt, the results can be viewed here.
You can catch up with Laima’s newest adventures and work on her Instagram or her Tumblr blog.
written by Madara Dzerve