Elza Jo van Reenen is an established photographer and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. She is known for her fun and eclectic photography far beyond the borders of the Netherlands.
How you got into advertising in a sentence...
It took me relatively long, I wanted to experiment first and develop my signature. Since I go for mixed techniques in my work, I wished to investigate how to tell a story with a more artistic approach before I moved into advertising.
The most recent campaign I’ve worked on...
I made a series of GIF’s and photos for Dutch railway service NS and energy provider ENECO. The people we captured on pictures for this campaign are all actual train travellers that were just doing their thing - eating, drinking, listening to music or sleeping. It was a fun challenge to work without a pre-determined cast.
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The best piece of creative work around at the moment is...
Not sure if I can pick a ‘best’, but I really love Björk's ‘Pagan Poetry’ video for being shockingly pretty. Chapman Brothers' ‘If Hitler had been a Hippy how Happy would We be’ for being genius. And the photography of Pieter Hugo for being harsh and romantic at the same time.
The next big thing in advertising is going to be...
I think it will be more varied, with smaller initiatives from bigger companies and bigger projects done by smaller independent companies. It will be more daring and impartial. Smaller budgets, but more projects with creative freedom. But maybe this is just what I personally hope to see more of.
The piece of advertising work I wish I had thought of is...
Lou Reed for Supreme and Ruba Zai for Dolce & Gabbana. I love it when brands embrace interesting and daring icons.
The internet/digital tool I couldn’t live without is...
WeTransfer is king!
In a film about my life, I’d like to be played by...
Iggy Pop!
A word or phrase I overuse...
“Don’t worry! Everything will be amazing”
This sign was on the wall at my friend’s Julia for years, not sure if things became amazing since then, but at least the meaning is very optimistic.
My last social media update said...
My last update was regarding a campaign I did for fashion brand Tratlehner. It was founded by my boyfriend, Freddy - he's a singer in Dutch hip hop group De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig - and one of our best friends. It's one of the first times we made a 'gesamtskunstwerk' in our 13-years of being together, and it definitely left a good taste!
My dream collaboration is...
Something with a music icon and high fashion combined. I'm in love with icons. My favourite form of art is music videos from the times when there were loads of money invested in this and artists went crazy when making them. In many ways I think high fashion brands took over this function of creating pop-iconicness.
A piece of criticism I’ve received was...
I experiment a lot, which is a good thing when you don't overdo it, which I do...
The last piece of music I listened to was...
The soundtrack that Freddy wrote for my first documentary "Jolene". I spent three years making this movie, so it’s very close to my heart. It's about a young woman and mother called Jolene. She works in a strip bar and considers the football hooligans her family, she goes to every AJAX match and occasionally gets into fights there. Her ex-boyfriend stalks her. The story is about how she tries to find love although her world is filled with aggression.
Twitter handle: @elza_jo
https://halal.amsterdam/
