Punk

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Stelli in Studio + Interview

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Stelli and I shot in the studio using lots of Saran Wrap, flowers and bodysuits.

Shooting with Stelli is always a blast. She’s not only a very talented model, but also very down to earth and full of new ideas and concepts.

Here is a short interview with her:

Got any favorite quotes?

My favorite quote is from the book The Little Prince, “ it is only with the heart one can see rightly, anything essential is invisible to the eye”.


What’s your favorite movie you’ve seen this year? (It can be old or new, as long as it was new to you)

My favorite movie I watched recently this year was The Breakup with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. I definitely needed that moving on after my own breakup and the realness mixed with the humor really helped me feel more content with what I was going through.

What’s your favorite part about modeling?

My favorite part of modeling is getting to really connect with myself and my physical appearance. I’m definitely in my head a lot and it’s nice to be able to put away the glasses and business casual attire and not think about my “real” life, and take the time to go back to my little girl roots of just wanting to play dress up. And even during those more awkward shoots where I’m doing something random, I still feel very connected to my body and get to separate whatever is in my head at the time to be in the shoots.

What’s your unwinding routine?

Favorite unwinding routine. I definitely keep it pretty easy, I’m not a whole 10 step skincare girly. But more on the side of I smoke a little bit of weed then just do what my body needs. Sometimes I’ll go for a walk or do some yoga, others I just take a shower and listen to some music. I also really like cooking and baking so a lot of the times my day ends with putting on a vinyl making some food. Meditating is also a big thing for me, I don’t have any type of routine, but just taking a few minutes or however to let my breath and thoughts settle.

Favorite pizza toppings??

Pizza is definitely green chili (im addicted) and pepperoni. I also can go for Hawaiian or BBQ chicken because pineapple can belong on pizza.

If you could travel anywhere, what’s at the top of your list?

If I could go anywhere definitely Wales or Spain. Wales just seems absolutely beautiful. And my family has roots in Spain so it would be really nice to see where we come from and experience the culture.

You can follow Stelli on Instagram here @Its.Stelli and keep an eye out for more shoots with her in the future.

Till next time,

-Oliver

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What is counter culture

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I think being counter culture nowadays means creating instead of consuming.

We all know America (and the world) is a culture of consumers. On a large scale, we take the natural resources of the planet and convert them into products that consumers (us) buy. There’s a reason when we talk about the economy, we citizens are called “consumers” because we are literally consuming the resources of the planet that we’ve turned into products.

But consuming not only happens when you buy something. You scroll TikTok, you consume. You scroll IG, you consume. Twitter, Reddit, SnapChat, the internet as a whole. It’s short bits of entertainment meant to be easily consumable that you digest for half a second, forget about, and then move on.

This theme of everyone living their lives by purely consuming and not creating is something we’ve seen in movies like Wall-E and Idiocracy. (And in both those films the citizens had to learn to create again to regain their humanity.)

The system itself, is designed for consuming. So counter culture then, must be creating.

Being counter culture, to me, means creating art. (And not with the intention to become famous or make money.) Making art purely for the sake of making art. You don’t just sit around and think of yourself and what other people will think of you, you get up and create something. You take risks, you experiment. You don’t just spend your days consuming.

Just something to think about.

Till next time,

-Oliver Endahl

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If the internet was different

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If Instagram and TikTok didn’t exist, would people still “create”?

Whether people want to admit or not, the thought that nearly everyone has kept in the back of their mind while on a photoshoot for the last 15 years is “Will this do well on social media?”

If you’re a model, photographer, dancer, actor, baker, etc.. Would you still create if you couldn’t post it to a social network? I’ve met many people who were only at the photoshoot to produce “content” for Instagram. And I gotta be honest, that sucks. Cause really that means the thing they’re actually into, isn’t the process of creating art, playing or experimenting. That means the thing they’re actually into is getting validation & gaining social notoriety through posting on the internet.

Here’s another version of the question: What videos would people create and post if you couldn’t follow or like any of the posts?

What if TikTok/Instagram/YouTube didn’t exist, and the only way people could watch a video on the internet would be to have a direct link to an actual website, where the video file was hosted, and that’s it. You couldn’t follow the person who created the video, and you couldn’t like the video. You could only watch it thru a direct link on a website.

How many of the videos that you see on TikTok would still be posted if you couldn’t follow the creators or like the video? I would think, not very many.

And that’s the problem. Whether people are putting out comedy videos, lifestyle content, political videos, outrage at whatever is in the current news cycle that day, etc.. All of these people aren’t actually creating for the sake of spreading the word about their topic, they’re creating to have people hit follow and hit like.

Keep that in mind next time you’re watching a short form video. Ask yourself: “Would they still make and post this video if no one could follow them or like the video?”



Till next time,

-Oliver Endahl