Street Photography Meets Ephemeral Art

Name:
Annandaniel
Photography:
Annandaniel
Words:
Caroline Meeusen

Anna Devís and Daniel Rueda are two imaginative Spanish photographers who together make up the practice Annandaniel. The studio is all about creativity, exploring the world, and telling mesmerizing and fun stories. Hence their unique and humorous style. Anna and Daniel met at the Universitat Politècnica de València, where they both graduated from the School of Architecture. They have been creating together ever since, using their architectural background to “tell stories through fun and surprising images that are far from conventional architecture photography.” While Daniel takes care of the technical part, Anna is mostly the creative brain behind their projects, making them a perfect duo, acting like one. Annandaniel has already worked with renowned brands such as Netflix, Disney, Facebook, Pantone, Coca-Cola, Huawei, and so on.

Anna and Daniel describe their style as minimalistic, creative, and funny. With humor and minimal settings, they give meaning to what is portrayed in the frame. Their goal is simple: making people smile. And that is exactly what you will do when you look at their fun and often colorful images, always with some added humoristic element. One of the most surprising facts about their work might be that, besides some basic image processing, they don’t edit their images but create surreal scenes in real life. Co-founder Daniel Rueda talks about how and why they do this.

VISUAL PLEASURE Magazine:
How did Annandaniel come to be, why did you decide to found this studio together?

Daniel Rueda: We met each other at university and have been creating together ever since! We were not in the same classroom, though, but the fact that both of us had a greater interest in design besides architecture brought us together rather quickly. Very soon after that, we discovered that we made a great team since we were both very different types of creatives. While Anna is very inventive, humorous, and enjoys working with her hands, I am the complete opposite. I’m the technical one, worrying about things such as geometry, composition, and image quality. Opposites attract, don’t they?

How do you complement each other? Do you each have your own job or function in the studio?

I think we’re both very good at whatever it is the other one’s not great at. For example, Anna, being the artsy person that she is, is in charge of prop-making and all things craft around the studio. However, she doesn’t really get along with her laptop or the camera. But that’s fine because that’s totally my thing! So, whether I’m working with the computer or shooting with the camera, you’ll most likely find me behind a screen most of the time. However, as time goes by, we’re realizing that by working together we’re not only bringing to the table what we each know how to do best, but we are also constantly learning from each other how to improve in the areas we are not so comfortable in by nature.

In what way do you combine photography with storytelling?

Through sketching! Whether it’s a personal project or a commissioned work for a client, for us everything starts with a drawing. Anna and I sit together and brainstorm whatever it is that we are working on, and while doing that she translates our conversation into little sketches that get more and more detailed as we deep dive into the project. These drawings allow us to decide every single element of the frame and how it affects the narrative of the image, leaving nothing to chance. In a way, when we’re drawing the idea for a photograph, the image is already there, it just hasn’t been shot yet!

“Although the infinite possibilities that digitally-manipulated photography could bring us are very seductive, creative problem-solving is in our DNA”

Why this interest in and fascination for human relations and the urban environment?

We’ve always felt that, as a whole, we architects are not very good at communicating how important our job and responsibility really is to society, and that's something we discovered we could change with our photography very early on. We found out that, by implementing creativity and humor in our images, we could highlight specific buildings in a totally different way, making people without a background in architecture get excited about a particular space that might never otherwise have piqued their interest.

Do you combine these two interests in your images? If so, how?

As architects, this comes effortlessly to us. Our interest in design and architecture is something that sneaks into our photography without us even realizing it most of the time. For us, every picture tells a different story and for that matter, it needs a unique location to be told in. If you look closely you’d realize that most of our images would not work at all if we had chosen a slightly different location for it. Every story has been carefully hand-picked to perfectly match the location it’s been told in, and vice versa!

Why the choice to not edit your images? And is it not very challenging to set the scenes like this without editing?

It really is, but we love a good challenge! Plus, it wouldn’t be the same for us if we could do it all using the computer. We like to think of our work as “street photography meets ephemeral art.” What we mean by that is everything you see in the picture was actually there in the moment we took the photo, including the always incredible places most of our images take place at, or the sometimes surreal props we create for every shot. Also, when we’re finished, we carefully remove every trace of our presence as if nothing had happened there. And although the infinite possibilities that digitally-manipulated photography could bring us are very seductive, creative problem-solving is in our DNA. We really love working with limitations, it’s almost as if those real-life constraints we have to face every time we come up with an idea shaped the way our work looks and feels.

“As we like to say: “humor is a very serious thing.” ”

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Why is there always a funny or humorous aspect in your images, why is that important for you and your work?

As we like to say: “humor is a very serious thing.” We tend to praise a movie when it makes us cry, but we get the feeling that we don’t appreciate enough how incredible it is that a comedy can make us laugh for the same price. Therefore, if some photography exhibitions can shake us to the core, we believe there should also be room for images that can bring a smile to our faces!

What inspires you for your work and in life?

Even though we are not practicing anymore, Anna and I are both architects. So, although it is very difficult to pinpoint out exactly where each individual idea comes from, we believe that it’s safe to say that our shared backgrounds in architecture have completely and definitively shaped our way of seeing the world forever. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing today if we hadn’t studied that particular degree!

Is there a project, site, brand, etc., that is still on your photography bucket list?

Too many to count! Working with different companies and brands is something we truly enjoy. As a matter of fact, some of our favorite artworks have been born as the result of a collaboration with a brand! We’re looking forward to working on any and all projects that may come along the way, as long as we can enjoy some level of creative freedom. Having said that, we really wouldn’t mind working with Tesla or Space X. Hit us up, Elon!