EVA AL DESNUDO. Designed to Snap.
You might not recognize her face but for sure, you have seen through her lens.
Eva Losada or Eva al Desnudo, her professional name, is a major figure in fashion photography at the moment. Originally from Spain, Eva is a self-taught photographer and creative director that has built herself and opened her own path in the fashion industry, whilst staying true to herself.
With an extensive career photographing fashion weeks all over the world and her intuitive and unique taste for alternative style, she became the best street style shooter, whom all the front row guests wanted to be captured by.
She has been the eyes behind the curtain in the most renowned backstage areas, from ADIDAS to Gucci, from Dior to Rick Owens. She has used her distinctive talent to be present, catching the perfect moment from haute couture to street style, with a human and emotional approach.
As a self-taught artist, with a wealth of experience, Eva has overcome the drawbacks of being an “outsider” in the fashion world and proved her talent and quirky vision, becoming a valued artist dedicated to fashion and commercial editorials, with campaigns published in Highsnobiety, Dazed, Another, among others.
With a unique and visionary style herself, the photographer has mastered the skill to decipher fashion and create colorful compositions, unique moments that go beyond the object, reach the spirit and at the same time, reveal her inner world.
You learned photography by yourself, partly under the influence of your father and partly as a hobby. But how did you make your way from the streets of London backstage to big labels like Yohji Yamamoto or collaborating with Nick Knight?
Yes, my father took photos, in an amateur way but I was always surrounded by cameras and used them from a very young age, but I never had any interest in being a professional photographer. I have always been fascinated by fashion. When I was very little, I watched Galliano's shows for Dior on television and dreamed of being one day there and I ended up being the only external photographer with full access to Dior men backstage. I always liked design and styling more than photography itself.
It was a bit of a bounce when I moved to London. It was there when I decided to go to Fashion Week to see the atmosphere. As I always had a special way of dressing, the street style photographers took a lot of photos of me. The first day at Fashion Week I was on i-D, Vogue, Elle, Hypebeast, Dazed. The next day I took my camera and took some photos, I remember that I was very embarrassed to ask, so I tried to take them without the person noticing, I think that from there I developed my own style on the street.
As a result of posting the photos on Instagram, a magazine from London contacted me and that's how it all began.
I started very early with Highsnobiety, a magazine which I still collaborate with, to cover backstage, street, interviews with rappers and NBA players. From there, meeting people from the industry through fashion weeks, everything else came organically.
I have collaborated several times with SHOWstudio, the Project founded by Nick Knight. For me, being one of my favorite photographers, working in the same studio was incredible. Not only have I worked in the studio, but they have also counted on me to review shows and collections as a fashion insider.
“I always said since I started, that I would be in fashion only as long as I could be me and do what I like.”
Bill Cunningham once said: "Those who seek beauty will find it." Words that could be yours too. It is evident in your photography that you have a unique, special beauty, distinct from the standard sense and that you make it beautiful. Do you think it is difficult to work in the industry when your vision is so far from 'politically correct in fashion'?
This is a very interesting question. I always said since I started, that I would be in fashion only as long as I could be me and do what I like, which at first was a source of ridicule among other photographers. I think it is very important to know what you like and what you want and to continue down that path and believe in yourself, it worked for me, and I am glad I was not modeled on those principles.
It is true that, when it comes to campaigns or editorials, people want something softer, which is why it is more difficult to open a gap without doing what everyone else does. But it is finding your style and perhaps adapting it a little to what the market demands without losing that essence.
I think that right now we are living a good time for the "not politically correct", finally the industry is opening to work with other creatives, experiment more, and use a more creative aesthetic, less polished and more real, even in advertising campaigns by large firms.
In street style photography or backstage there are many factors to take into account in just a few seconds to get the perfect photo. Lightning, angle, composition, framing... Is there one that leads your creativity at that moment or is it a matter of instinct?
It is a matter of instinct in these cases. These are environments that happen very quickly and you don't have time to plan or think too much about more technical details. In the case of street and backstage, it is more to document what happens through your eyes, which is what makes one photographer different from another.
Besides street style and backstages, you have been involved and have developed extensive editorial work and collaborations with brands such as Nike. How different are the different creative processes of each one and how did you change or broaden your abilities to adapt to another medium?
Well, I started with street style but I stopped doing it a couple of years ago, today I do campaigns, editorials, and backstage.
They are different processes, in the street and backstage you don't have control of lights, space, models ... you have to play with what is in the environment, it is very fun, figuring out how to do something different. In editorial and campaigns, it is the opposite, there is a prior process where the story is created, the style of the photos, the casting, makeup, set is decided ... There is a lot of work prior to the shoot.
It has been organic, you start with one type of work and you try other things. In my case, I always knew that the Street was not where I was going to end, it helped me a lot, to meet people, it was also fun at the beginning, but I never wanted to stay there.
One thing that helped me a lot in the industry was meditation, fashion is an industry that is not always easy, and meditating keeps you centered and grounded, it allows your intuition to be active and thus, move in the right direction without being greatly influenced by other factors.
In times of COVID, with most of the online fashion shows, how have you adapted your work to this “new normal”?
The truth is that at first, I enjoyed having a little rest. I had been working six years non stop, traveling eight months a year and the break was great. Still, at the beginning of the lockdown, I decided to do an editorial through Zoom, and experiment with what we had, which was suddenly only the screen of your iPad / iPhone. The editorial was one of the first to be done exclusively through zoom and it was published in i-D.
As a result, I was working on other editorials once the measures stopped being so strict. I have been focused on more creative and personal work. Since now I have time which is helping me to discover the line I want to go through. I think everything was going too fast before the pandemic and despite all the horrible things, I think it will bring good things in terms of unity between creatives, to move from a very individualistic world to foster community and to do deeper and more meaningful work. As for fashion weeks, in September there were some physical shows in Milan and Paris, so I was lucky enough to be able to travel a bit and feel, although very different, the atmosphere of fashion week, without events and with many limitations.
“One thing that helped me a lot in the industry was meditation, fashion is an industry that is not always easy, and meditating keeps you centered and grounded, it allows your intuition to be active and thus move in the right direction without being greatly influenced by other factors.”
The GATA team had the pleasure of meeting you in Tokyo, a city with which you have a very close relationship. Do you find something special about it that you don't find elsewhere?
Tokyo is definitely, one of the most special cities that I have had the pleasure of knowing, if not the most. I was always very interested in Japanese culture and especially in everything that happens underground. In addition to cinema and of course, fashion.
I love Tokyo in some way and contrary to what everyone sees of Japan, it is like going back a bit in time, I love that there are many people there who dedicate a whole life to their passion. Also, the details with which everything is made, in this case for example fashion; or the duality of society, the explosion of art in Tokyo, not yet influenced by the mass media. That authenticity fascinates me.
Any new projects you can tell us about?
I am currently preparing three editorials that I cannot talk much about yet and other projects that are to be confirmed. Also I’m getting to know Berlin and very interesting artists here with whom I would like to work with shortly.
In previous interviews you have commented on the origin of your nickname ‘Eva Naked’. Born from a game with your cousin ‘Irma la dulce’ and related to the film by Joseph L. Mankiewicz starring Bette Davis, why did you choose this film?
Actually, it was not something that we studied in great detail, it was more to look for a movie with our names that we had already seen and we would have liked. Bette Davis definitely added value to the selection.
Apart from ‘Eva in the Nude’, is there a movie that has particularly impacted you or has had a special influence on you or your work?
I really like Wong Kar-wai's films, especially In the Mood for Love, the aesthetics, the light, the colors, the costumes, the music... also David Lynch and other very visual ones like The Color of Pomegranates, Hero or Holy Mountain. I still have to see many of the films that you publish in GATA to add to the list.