Luvinsky Atche
Musician, composer, actor and theatre director
Atche comes from Bordeaux, France. He compares art to food and love, so more or less the essential things in life. He thinks how you wear a pair of jeans is more important than what you wear, and that having a unique style is key. A favourite quote of his is one from Yves Saint Laurent: “Fashions fade, but style is eternal.”

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Dani Brown
Dancer
Born in New York, Brown works as an international freelance choreographer, performer and teacher. For her, fashion is entertainment, representation and fantasy. It’s a way to play with identity and expectations. At 21 she cross-dressed and went
to all the casting for men’s fashion week in Paris.
“I didn’t get booked, but it was fun. The pretty boys couldn’t keep their eyes off me.”

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Adina Bier
Curatorial director
Chicago-born Bier thinks it’s important to express herself through fashion. She describes it as being a link between her body and personality through putting pieces together to provide different options and opportunities. It’s a way of presenting herself, she says, and becoming the best she can be.

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Viviana Druga
Performance artist and photographer
Druga was born in Transylvania, Romania. Since moving to Berlin she has been investigating the personal and poetic side of performance and the new dimensions of reality, and she captures that reality using photography. She doesn’t believe in style. In her view every human is unique, but she thinks we are all very similar. “We all want to be loved and this is the most essential.”

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Florinn Bareth
Artist
A true multitasker, Bareth composes experimental music works using sound and video, and is also a project co-ordinator and concept consultant. Her personal style reflects the notion of reusing, but fashion is irrelevant to her art. She is inspired by coherence of the personality and style that comes from beyond temporary trends.

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Ettina Berrios Negron
Fashion designer
Having grown up in Berlin, Berrios Negron currently designs for her own label, Thone Negron. Art inspires both her mind and spirit but she doesn’t use fashion as an art form. Her goal is to dress women and make them look and feel good about themselves. She believes that fashion can be entertaining and a way to communicate with the world around us.

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Credits:

Words by Rebekka Aldén.

Photographer Erika Svensson.

Special thanks to Anastasia Freygang.

Links:

Dani Brown, Adina Bier, Luvinsky Atche, Viviana Druga, Florinn Bareth, Ettina Berrios Negron.

Dennis Duijnhouwer is a lifestyle analogue photographer based in Amsterdam. He works with his camera almost every day and his focus is always on catching moments of what he considers to be out-of-the-ordinary reality. Current obsessions include animal prints, 2Pac, fake flowers, bad graffiti and gabber music.

What first drew you to Amsterdam?

“As a kid, coming from a small town, visiting family in Amsterdam was always a thrilling experience. When I first started carrying a camera with me after moving here, I was definitely inspired by the photographers who documented Amsterdam’s halcyon days, such as Ed van der Elsken. The city still has that spirit, you’ve just gotta look a lot harder to find it.”

Photography is obviously a big part of your life. The pictures in your portfolio portray a large variety of people with different looks and personalities in many different contexts. Is being different what appeals to you?

“I just want to have a rich, colourful and adventure-filled existence. Photography is a way for me to be rooted in reality and be caught in a dream at the same time. It’s easy to hate with photography, much harder to love.”

Your images have a real vibrancy; colour just bounces off them. Is that intentional?

“I generally find this world to be a cruel, harsh and grey place, so I’m really drawn to anything that is not that.”

What inspires you most in your work?

“Anything really. Mostly my friends – they are quite an amazing cast of inspired, outspoken and fantastic weirdos. And, of course, definitely music. Music is the best!”

Why is photography so important to you?

It allows me to interact with the world in a very different way compared with when I don’t have a camera on me. I’m usually a little shy. I like all the possibilities of adventures that lie just around the corner when I’m photographing.”

You describe your city as being small, chaotic and beautiful. Amsterdam is also, of course, well known for being outspoken concerning the subjects of drugs and prostitution. Does that influence your work at all?

“When I was younger I romanticised the red-light district in Amsterdam, but today I’m really sort of saddened about it. It’s human misery for sale and on display. With that said, prostitution will always be a part of this world. I’m just not sure how we, as a society, should go about changing it.”

Dennis performs as Right On Moutain on Red light Radio

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Credits:

Words by Rebekka Aldén.

Photos by Dennis Duijnhouwer.