Captivating Honesty

Joshua Shafer: I am a multi instrumentalist and composer. I started writing around the age of 11, and come from a long line of musicians on both sides of the family.. so naturally music has played a central role in my life.

Clarissa Sofia: I was born in Ibiza, Spain but spent most of my life in London. I would spend my summers here on the island which I now get to call home again. I am fascinated by the human mind, I’ve always thought that if I hadn’t become a photographer I probably would have studied psychology. My art work is my main form of expression, I use it as a tool to deal with my emotions and to share my thoughts with the world.

Clarissa: Here is a poem from my book Fault Lines:

BECOMING

We are unceasingly becoming,

plucking carefully

at these lucid moments,

digesting only what belongs to us.

We collect conversations,

pulling the thoughts of past lovers

into our trusty dictionary,

referencing borrowed words

as our tongues carve new languages.

We strum on nylon chords,

manifesting an ever-lasting night,

romanticising over the mundane

till the dull blooms into crayon threads.

Tirelessly they weave,

marking another stitch

into our embellished hearts –

unravel and re-route this skin,

we are fragments of ever-changing art.

What’s your centre in life? 

Joshua: My center is, most likely, the absence of one. I am embarrassingly feckless, which has lead me to as much good as bad. Love, and the love of living I guess.

What came first, poetry or photography and in what way do you find these two forms interact with each other?

Clarissa: Photography came first, I was instantly captivated with how magical analogue photography is. Ever since then I haven’t stopped taking photos. I discovered poetry I was 19, I never read much when I was younger but at some point my diary entries started turning into poems, and I then began reading the works of modern poets. I just love how beautiful and impacting words can sound when thread together in the right way.
For me, both photography and poetry have become a form of therapy, they allow me to be vulnerable, which is an extremely scary yet empowering feeling, and mostly it allows me to feel connected to anyone that has shared similar experiences. Sometimes it is easier to say what I really want to through a photo or a poem, I can be quite shy in person so this is my way of being brutally honest without having any fear of judgement, I can truly just be me.