How the Photography of Haris Nukem can Make You a Better Artist
April 21, 2022Haris Nukem
Occasionally, I like to highlight other artists who inspire or push me creatively. My biggest influences include authors like Mark Twain, classic American portrait artists like Norman Rockwell, and even musicians who drive me creatively like Bjork and Squarepusher.
But for today, it’s all about the photography of Haris Nukem.
Born in 1989, Haris came to the UK as a Bosnian political refugee at the age of three. By 2014, he found himself in a full-blown mid-life crisis, fueled by the mundane droll of an office job in advertising and feeling a lack of purpose in life. To that end, he launched a small clothing line with a friend, a decision that would shift the trajectory of his life.
Photographing people in his clothing to promote his fashion line, he became less concerned about the fashion and more obsessed with the photography. This obsession would lead him to a distinguished career in fashion photography, shooting campaigns for BOY London, Selfridges, Twisted Tailor, Glitterbox, and more. He would also go on to shoot covers for a vast range of publications, including Mixmag, Beautiful Bizarre, Noctis, and Lowdown, as well as work with a variety of record labels and artists, including Defected Records, Good Soldier, Warner Music, Universal, IAMDDB, Dennis Sulta, Jordan Stephens and Badass B, before transitioning to a portfolio of highly stylized photographed portraits.
He would have a breakout year in 2018 when “Fine Art and Dark Beauty Portrait Photography,” inspired by the book “Tribe” by Sebastian Junger, would turn him into a household name. His following exhibition, “Faith,” the next year in London’s Soho would further propel him to a global audience.
But what makes Haris’ art so compelling? Here are the three key takeaways from Haris that you can apply to your journey as an artist. It all comes down to Voice, Intention, and Narrative.
VOICE
Many people refer to an artist’s voice when speaking about music, literature, or fashion, but what exactly does that mean? Voice is simply the character or personality of your art. Imagine that your artistic style is a person. If they mixed in with a large crowd of other anthropomorphic styles, would you be able to recognize your “art-person” among the masses, or would you only see a multitude of the same faces looking back at you? Many artists develop a high level of technical proficiency but neglect to apply that proficiency in a meaningful way to distinguish their voice.
Haris’ work has a distinct style and manner. The moment you see a Haris Nukem photograph, you know he took it. Having a distinctive voice goes a long way in building a connection between the artist and the viewer. But how did Harris develop his style, and how can you apply it to your artistic development?
“One of the easiest ways to find your voice is to make the type of art you would be a fan of.”
It seems obvious, but a big part of Haris’ voice comes from himself. His likes, dislikes, style, and preferences all influence the character of his art. Since we are all inherently unique, if we amplify and apply who we already are to our art, we have instantaneously made it one-of-a-kind. Harris reflects himself in his art by making the type of art he would be passionate about. He asked himself what he wanted to see in photography that didn’t yet exist, and then he created it. One of the easiest ways to find your voice is to make the type of art you would be a fan of.
“My style visually is what I wanted to see and couldn’t find when I started. I wanted to mix that grit of war journalism with the vibrancy of fashion photography.” - Haris Nukem
But Haris has also developed his style by finding influences and inspiration outside of photography. His inspirations include Renaissance artist Caravaggio and filmmaker David Finch. If you are familiar with Caravaggio and David’s work, you can see how Caravaggio’s composition and narrative choices, along with David Finch’s use of color, collide in Haris’ work.
This is such a critical point for your development as an artist. Find inspiration outside of your primary genre or field. If you are a pop singer, one of the worst things you can do is only to study other singers, and even worst, only to study other pop singers. This is because when others inspire us, our natural inclination is to imitate them to be able to achieve what they can do. And imitation is a facsimile of style, it doesn’t innovate it. If you are a photographer imitating other photographers you admire, your work might become indistinguishable from theirs. Singers imitating other singers may become indistinguishable from the idols they take inspiration from, and your voice may get lost.
“Your inspiration should be GREAT, PASSIONATE, and IMPOSSIBLE.”
But by varying your inspiration, you may bring influences into your work that people have never associated with your type of art before. If a pop singer borrows from a classical pianist or a bluegrass singer they admire, or a painter tries to apply music theory to the process of painting, then you can start to see how you have the ingredients to build something special and new. And your inspiration can come from anywhere: science, literature, astrology, oceanography, or architecture. But your inspiration should be GREAT, PASSIONATE, and IMPOSSIBLE. If our inclination is to emulate what inspires us, why not try to be Giants and Kings?
INTENTION
“My recent photos are all completely allegorical. Everything is there for a reason. The objects or people in the photo and how they are positioned, it all has meaning. I’m really influenced by the Renaissance including artists such as Caravaggio, which has inspired my pallet, and the tonal composition of my photos.” - Haris Nukem
Another concept that you can apply from Haris is to have intention and purpose behind your art. Making a stylistic decision because it looks cool is great, but if you aren’t making more deliberate choices in your art, then you are missing a chance to add to the mythology and depth of your work.
I frequently get to know the subjects of my portraits so the details I choose to add to the piece will be an easter egg or hold particular importance to the person I am painting. The backstory and actual meaning may never be known to anyone else, but they give your work more depth, what I like to call putting blood in the veins of your art. Like blood, it gives your work more life without necessarily ever being seen or understood.
Harris also discusses his need for intention and he will often photograph friends or get to know people intimately so that he can communicate aspects of who they are in his pieces.
In this piece, Nigerian-born dancer Kikz, who escaped a life of child slavery and emigrated to the UK, is photographed in the native dress of West African queens while enjoying a cup of tea, which is a favorite British pastime, merging those two parts of her world.
NARRATIVE
And finally, Haris is able to communicate a great sense of narrative in his work.
All great art has great narrative. Narrative is the means that hook a person into your work and holds them captive. Haris is masterful at using iconic themes and imagery like fire, sexuality, religion, and motherhood to draw you to his pieces but he is also great at presenting narratives in his photographs to hold you there.
The easiest way to add narrative to your work is to think of narrative simply as posing a compelling question. And the answer to that question leads to another compelling question. If you were writing a novel, this series of questions and answers would lead your reader to the finale where the final question should often be answered with an unexpectant solution to an impossible situation. But as portrait artists, as photographers, as musicians, oftentimes we are only presenting a moment in time in the life of that story, so generally, it is enough to simply pose one question. The viewers’ curiosity for the answer will determine how much time they will invest to see if they can figure it out.
What are the questions posed in this series of photographs by Haris Nukem?
Think about how you can add more of a connection to your art by hooking your viewer in with a simple narrative, story, or compelling question.
“Find your sense of purpose in the world. Contribute to a group. Only be around people that you believe in. Believe in yourself and others will too. Have an objective bigger than yourself.” - Haris Nukem