Maya Fuhr (@mayafuhr), innovator, influencer and most importantly insanely creative photographer. Maya Fuhr depicts all that is great in the world, in all it's quirks and oddities through her lens and through her imagination.
Growing up in Victoria, British Columbia as the daughter of a father in psychology and a mother working as a sustainable fashion designer, life was rich with interactions of human nature in all its adornment and intersections. However, for Maya as a young girl it was the world played out in her imagination that impacted her photography as she got older and created a difference between her and other photographers in present day.
Shooting in film is what captivates Maya, it's it’s colourful nature and playful outcomes are freeing. Maya’s style requires technical ability and patience especially as a lot of her work uses direct flash photography. She likes this technique because it saturates colours and illuminates detail. Maya feels with so much of life's images digitally captured at an instant; you can lose the gratification of the unknown, the mystery of the shot. The addiction of getting the film back is what creates the ultimate high. It's an instinctive thing to know whether the shot will be the one. Maya states it's like the world stands still for that split second, the body tingles with excitement, the sense are alive and in that moment, you know. Film is unique, it takes her away from screen time. It’s something physical that allows her to be present and engage with what she's shooting. Her first ever camera was a Pentax K1000 that her father bought her, but previous to this, she was using disposal cameras and Polaroids.
Maya’s world is calm, curious and gut felt. Her imagery is her canvas to explore her subjects, to delve a little deeper to create moments that are not just personal but inceptual thoughts. Her subjects are her working family, they take control of the reign with the help of Maya's soothing, fluid interactions. Maya has a way of creating an environment that is easy to be around, a tranquil space that somehow tells a story, a memory that lives on through her lens and the environments she creates. Her subjects are her inspiration and her community, without them she says her photos wouldn't be as good. Their generosity in allowing her to capture them enhances her style, allows her to experiment from day to day depending on the muse she has in front of her. Her style peaks out through the pastel hues dashing though a chaotic scene to a relaxing backdrop. Her work is very intuitive, built on the foundations of the now. Her wonderful eye depicting visions unseen to the norm. Maya produces imagery that is captivating, imagery that can be unravelled with every look. Subjective and deeply surreal, a portrait of Maya’s mind which leads true to the meaning of the name Maya in Sanscrit that means to dream an illusion.
For Maya, it was always about empowering people, to see themselves how they should be seen rather than a shallow portrayal that the media depicts you should be. Maya seeks to create a body positive, inclusive world as its important that opinions evolve. When she started in the photography industry capturing models they was still in the peak of ‘skinny’ and ‘collarbones’, the stuff that she had seen in magazines as a young girl, the stuff that that impacted her so negatively growing up. Maya stood against this and brands listened.
Maya has worked for big name brands such as Topshop , Mui Mui, Adidas and high end magazines such as Nylon, Interview and Vogue. She won the 2017 flash forward project grant from Magenta Foundation, she has several galleries her photography and art work in and around Montreal. She was taken on my Rodeo productions and is the co founder of Clay D.D collective which sets up workshops in LA for marginalised students with development disabilities using a holistic approach of clay, meditation and a psychological practice called Adlerian theory to empower her students.
Maya is making waves in the industry engaging with different communities. She says that being female is a superpower and its especially important in this industry to use it. I asked Maya what’s one thing she couldn't live without that she carries with her? She said a water bottle. Source of life baby, and it’s this true to life approach that shows how amazing Maya Fuhr is.
