HANNAH-MIA

 





PORTOLIO WORK ABOUT @hannahdashmia




POST UPBY HANNAH-MIA HINDS

“I WANT TO BE THE SPIKE LEE OF CREATIVE DIRECTORS." SAYS HANNAH-MIA AS WE LAUGH BACK AND FORTH. “YOU KNOW HOW HE GOT GIANCARLO IN EVERY SINGLE MOVIE? HE HAS THAT WHOLE LITTLE CREW PRESENT? I WANT TO BE ABLE TO PULL PEOPLE IN,” SHE CLARIFIES, “IT’S ABOUT LOVE, SO YOU SHOULD BE IN LOVE WITH EVERYONE YOU WORK WITH.”




Growing up between her Upper East Side all-girls school and Brooklyn apartment with her mom, she describes the beginning of her inspiration coming from somewhat of a double life. “I was wearing a uniform every day; I was going through that period of time where you’re a young black girl and you feel kind of stifled; you don't fit in. On the other side, I grew up in Brooklyn. I grew up in a lot of really creative spaces. I kind of always had this understanding that people who look like me, talk like me, and act like me can have professions in creative industries.”  
One of her first major roles was at the Gen Z run publication, Our Era Magazine, “which is a big thing because we were all like five,” she jokes. It was here that she began to legitimize herself through high-responsibility projects while working with companies like Instagram and Steve Madden. Being present in these environments gave her the confidence to understand how to run her own set and curate a professionalism that carried her into artistic independence.

These early milestones were merely the beginning of the world she’s creating. Now, with a portfolio that includes Internet star @goldensoleil and activist Marley Dias, she’s crafted her skillset with detail and care. “I can't do anything casually; I love making things a big production, but knowing that I have people who are going to be working with me who are taking time out of their day to come hang out with me and create something, I need to be really strategic so that they can be spontaneous.” While her photos showcase her constantly evolving creativity and confidence in her vision, she’s also molding an entire production. “It’s my responsibility to make my ideas as good as I see fit because nobody is going to be as passionate as I am,” she explains. “When I figured out that photography is not just your friends getting really good pictures for Instagram because of you, I started really putting my time and effort into it, and I needed to usurp all those titles [creative director, producer, photographer] in order to have something that was going to look professional. And I love collaborating with other people, but I’ll never ask somebody to do something that I can’t do myself.” Growing up in New York surrounded by other young artists who were willing to “jump off a bridge” to pursue their passions built up her courage and confidence.
“If I plaster my face around New York City and get friend to interview me and get my friends on the project, it’s like I’m creative directing my own self-portrait. That’s really what it feels like, and everyone that I love and care about is giving their own interpretations of what they think I should look like at this moment.”
At the heart of her hard work is authenticity, and when working against the current digital landscape of the creative industry, she is constantly weaving through modes of inspiration. “When you start having that lack of inspiration in it, you start getting a little scared and confused. But I have been thinking I need to sit down and really get back into my art. I feel like being on Pinterest, being on Instagram—being on all those things makes me create in a vacuum.” 

To Hannah-Mia, centering social media is restrictive for her art. “I was thinking the other day, if my Instagram deleted today, I would scream and cry and my art would be gone. We need to fix that. Instagram is not a platform for art anymore, and people are still putting it there and wondering why it’s not being seen.” She continues, “If I plaster my face around New York City and get a friend to interview me and get my friends on the project, it’s like I’m creative directing my own self-portrait. That’s really what it feels like, and everyone that I love and care about is giving their own interpretations of what they think I should look like at this moment.” Hannah-Mia is taking complete authority over her art instead of waiting for recognition from those who are passively interacting with what they see on social media. 

This project, Post-Up, is inherently defiant. It is resisting the notion that one has to completely commodify themselves in order to find success. While it may have given individuals an opportunity to work independently in the past, social media has now become incredibly restrictive. By wheatpasting pictures of herself around New York, Hannah-Mia makes a move in complete opposition, speaking to the frustration that she and other artists are experiencing. When it comes to setting herself apart from other young creatives, on the internet or in a city like New York, this project is exactly that; it’s an active rejection, and work like this is important when carving out the standards creatives are setting for themselves and each other. 

“Why do I need to have 10k [followers] for you to follow me back so we could work together? Let's get into work first,” and when it comes to choosing artists to work with, she’ll always place the art above the numbers: “Fuck that; I’m going to choose the black girl who is passionate, who is willing to raise their fucking stakes. I’m going to do that because I want to put people on who are doing exactly what I was doing, who are not getting the opportunity. We were really cute with our little influencer-to-artist pipeline vibe that we had going on; it was really cute in 2020, but once again we’ve got to change it up.” 

When asked about how she imagines success, she explains to me that her visions continue to evolve, decentering what she sees other people doing. Right now? “Success is being able to pull my friends into things and pay them. Oh my god, imagine paying people. That’s really what my current thing is. I want to pay people. I want to be able to give myself the time between projects to live my life. I want to have a fucking conversation. I want to meet people,” and there's no better way to say it than she does herself: “Success is really all those things combined and maybe some new boots.”

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