Creativity, collaboration and connection.

Creative Series
Written By Guest User

Today we launch our creative series, Re Creates. Kicked off with @amarriedcouple. Keep reading till the end to feel inspired…

At the end of last year, I (Monica) attended a day retreat hosted by people like us and I met and connected with some beautiful humans. The day consisted of many things: yoga, breakfast, a sound bath, a tour of the winery and pizza (yum!). But the most important and transformational part of the day was when Calypso hosted a coaching session that challenged us to identify and connect with the values that drive us. Through a series of exercises I identified three values that guide (or should guide) my everyday decision making - collaboration, respect and adventure. I now assess decisions that affect my life with these values in mind. I’d like to expand on the collaboration value specifically here. 

Does this opportunity or decision allow me to collaborate with people? 

This is a question that I now ask myself when new opportunities present themselves.

I combined a few words to come up with the word ‘collaboration’ as a value. One of those was creativity, another was connection. I realised that looking back at my life, the times I was happiest were the times that I was connecting with, and creating something with others. It was so insightful for me to learn this about myself, as someone who has predominantly worked from home, alone, for the last two and a half years. I’d been struggling to understand why I felt so low. To be honest, I didn’t feel much like myself at the time of this retreat and it came at the time I needed it the most. Burnt out trying to deliver a wellness brand. Living against the ideals and the experience that I was trying to give others through Re.

I’d gotten myself so caught up in the mission of delivering tangible doses of wellness to as many people as possible, that I forgot to do this in a way that also fed and nurtured my soul along the way. Since that day, I’ve strived to bring more creativity and collaboration into my life. I’ve taken on more of a partnerships role which has allowed me to interact with and collaborate with amazing content creators, brands and creatives; I’ve formed new friendships with people who crave the same connection; I am more communicative with the connections that matter to me; and I’ve found more creative ways and places to work. Resetting, identifying my values and really living them has boosted my emotional wellbeing more than I can say. It’s meant that the setbacks won’t tip me over a cliff, they’ll just momentarily feel annoying. Allowing more creativity, collaboration and connection into my day-to-day life has allowed me to better withstand life’s challenges. It’s also expanded my network, my friendships and has led me to opportunities that I couldn’t have imagined when we started this brand. 

It’s led to a huge internal shift in my personal life too. It’s given me the confidence and courage to give up my flat in North London and explore how feasibly I can work remotely this summer. I’m now planning my summer around the different retreats I’d like to experience, and which people I’d like to connect with. I’ll be spending more time in different parts of the UK and Europe this summer, with more faraway destinations pending. As someone who spent the last ten years living in London, telling myself that London was the only place (in the UK) for me, this is quite the shift. I guess because I now have this amazing company to work on, and I have different connections to collaborate with, I see opportunities where I used to see none. I used to be in Corporate Real Estate, and to an extent I still am with our design studio - but as someone who dealt with start ups and FTSE100 companies, it seemed to me that most of the opportunities were in London. 

Fast forward to now - where I run a remote (but accessible) cabin brand, that encourages busy city dwellers to disconnect from the rat race, in an effort to enhance their mental health, their creativity and their connections. I now see all of the space outside of London as my land of opportunity and I promote the benefits of leaving the city behind, even if only for a few days. I always knew and understood these benefits, it’s why we set up the brand. But I’m only now starting to live the values more authentically myself. Leaving my home in London this summer to explore how that feels.

This is a long-winded attempt at explaining how connecting with my creativity through collaboration with others has helped me identify other potentially more joyful ways of living. I now know that my greatest creative skill is being able to connect the right people and places together. I’ve always thought of myself as a facilitator. A curator. And I guess that’s why I’ve found so much joy in designing a space for others to enjoy. And why I’ve enjoyed seeing how the space has connected them to their creativity and to each other.

Introducing: Re Creates - A creative series at our cabins
With this in mind, last November I decided to launch a creative series at the cabin by inviting different creatives in different areas to come and be inspired in nature. Knowing that each guest would see and experience something different and apply that differently to their creative output. (I won’t bang the drum of why getting out into nature helps your creativity - but there are many many reasons why it does).

I’m someone who starts to feel my skin prickle when I see art, or hear music, or listen to poetry that really speaks to me. You might know what I’m talking about - a concept or sound that is either so impressive, so relatable, or so refreshingly different that you can’t help but feel drawn to it. Sometimes it wraps you in a feeling of belonging, sometimes it highlights an experience that doesn’t feel familiar and jolts you out of your bubble. It’s an emotional response that your brain has, not an intellectual one. Each of the creatives that we have invited to stay have had this impact on me through their work, as varied as they all are to each other. 

I’d like to kick off this series by introducing you to one of the more playful pairs of creatives that we’ve invited to stay. We interviewed them to get a better understanding of what creativity means to them. 

A Married Couple (Denelle & Tom)

Denelle and Tom ( a married couple ) are two East London creatives who met back in 2016 and have worked collaboratively since. Their collaborative series, named “a married couple,” is their satirical exploration of traditional marital roles. Drawing from their own experiences, they craft visual narratives that combine fantasy and nostalgia, both within the confines of their studio and out in the world. This on-going body of work not only delves into the stereotypes and tensions between traditional gender roles but also scrutinises the spectacle and inherent pressures of married life.

M: Tell us a little about yourselves and how you met. 

D&T: 

Tom (b.1989 Essex, UK) initially came to London in 2013 to work alongside the established and emerging photography community. It’s here that he honed his craft, working in studios and assisting photographers to develop his own signature style. 

Denelle (b.1989 St. Catharines, Canada), after graduating from Toronto’s OCADU fine art photography program, relocated to London in 2013 to further her exploration in self-portraiture. 

Our paths crossed serendipitously in 2016 on an overground train home from work, a chance meeting that became a lifelong partnership, leading us to tie the knot six months later. Together, we transformed our live/work warehouse space into Peanut Factory Studio, a daylight photography studio in Hackney Wick. We immediately began to develop a collaborative practice, focusing on studio portraiture. Our commitment to analog photography — from medium format and Polaroid to VHS videotape — remains a testament to our dedication to the tactile and tangible aspects of our craft. Nearly all our images are created in camera with very minimal edits done in post production.

M: I came across you both years ago through an American instagram page called A Pretty Cool Hotel Tour. As an interior designer I was obsessed with the vintage interiors that the page showcased. At some point a few years ago, they featured one of your photos on her page and my obsession continued. Not only in love with the set design and props but also the retro fashion looks and tongue in cheek style that you both have. I also couldn’t get over that you were in the UK - having seen most of these kinds of styles falling largely out of North America. Can you tell me how you started this page, what inspired you to start and how easy or difficult has it been to cultivate a reputation for this kind of work? Where do you find your inspiration from?

D&T: First of all, thank you for the kind words and comparisons. We are huge fans of APCHT of course. It’s because of people like them that a lot of quirky and gorgeous destinations are having a resurgence and are kept relevant. Although we are UK based, some of our images are created in North America. Denelle grew up in Niagara Falls, (Alex Soth famously documented the area in his 2006 book Niagara) and heart shaped hot tubs were a staple in her early life. Her parents also live in Florida, where we occasionally visit (the Florida Project a 2017 film by Sean Baker is a huge inspiration). Last year we visited St.Louis for work and managed our way into the abandoned Millenium Hotel which overlooks the gateway arch. 

We love bearing witness to the decline of these iconic destinations, and are always striving to find the equivalent here in the UK. Sometimes that means creating them in our studio, but we found that Holiday parks and camping sites have been a recurring theme in our work. Our very first shoot was actually in a cabin at a holiday park in Wales. Drag artists have also been a huge inspiration for us. We admire the way they define beauty and combine it with humour.

We started amarriedcouple in response to Denelle being diagnosed with a chronic illness early on into our relationship. We wanted to escape the harsh reality that we were dealing with and indulge in a fantasy that was both funny and fabulous. 

We are very strict about what we post on our IG page, always keeping up the fantasy so to speak, we like to imagine we use it similar to how one would curate a photo album in the past. Ironically though, authenticity is so important to us, which is why we partnered with Polaroid early on. There is something inherently truthful about a Polaroid, we love the nostalgia it evokes. 

M: Do you ever struggle with creative blocks? What rituals help get you through them?

D&T: We’re both very creative, and our biggest strength as a duo is that we approach our practice in very different ways that compliment each other. Creative blocks are natural, as if we follow a cycle. But more often than not it’s hard to bring all our ideas to life as self funded artists, so our creativity is usually linked to problem solving: how to achieve this or that with limited resources. We find changing your environment can really help reset your frame of mind. Especially as we usually work from home, going for a walk in the park or going out for a beverage can help spark a new state of mind.

1970s Vogue lunch

M: This year your studio sadly flooded after some terrible weather. Can you tell us a little about this? Did you lose much work and equipment? Do you feel like you’ve come out of this on the other side now, or are you still feeling the effects?

D&T: Yes, our home studio flooded while we were flying home after New Years. The canal at the end of our road overflowed due to negligence and storm Henk. We lost so much: many things like equipment and backdrops could be repaired or replaced, however our entire negative and print archive was damaged and it was absolutely devastating. Our wedding photographs, hand printed editions of our work and one of a kind Polaroids were all ruined. We are so grateful to our community for their support, and after a few gallons of white paint in the studio we are finally starting to get back to normal.

M: Did you take any inspiration from the flood and channel it into any new work?

D&T: At first we were incredibly disheartened, and felt like we were running on empty, just trying to keep our heads above water (excuse the literalness of that phrase haha) but everyone was so supportive and really helped uplift us. We have plans to channel this experience into a new series but needed to get a bit of distance between us and the event to really reflect and let ourselves dry out a bit before jumping back into the deep end so to speak. 

Post lunch relax

M: Can you tell me a little bit about the photographs you captured at our cabin and where your inspiration is from?

D&T: We were so grateful to be able to escape the flood damaged studio and wanted to focus on rejuvenating ourselves. We initially were inspired with the idea of wellness and outdated ideas of self care. We were reminded of the viral 70s vogue diet about eating nothing but eggs / drinking a suspicious amount of coffee and wine. We loved the absolute absurdity of it and knew we needed to do a shoot based on this “diet”. 

It was important to us that we had something new to focus on that had nothing to do with the flood. Craving to escape creatively. Unfortunately, in typical British spring time weather, it poured down with rain the entirety of our stay so we didn’t get to venture outside the cabin very much which meant we needed to get extra creative with our setups inside the cosy cabin.

1970s Vogue dinner

We contacted some of our favourite British brands who lent us some of the things that made this shoot over the top. Let’s start with the incredible custom nail set made by @holdmyhand.hmh. She’s so talented. We sent her the vogue diet and she did the rest. She hand sculpted each nail to represent a different aspect of the diet. She’s just moved to London from Glasgow and goes without saying we have a similar sense of humour and taste level. So thankful to @weirdstock.living for the super 70s groovy bed set and eye masks. @thehippieshake always have the best matching couples outfits and glasses. Nearly all the props are for sale from @tabulavintage and @ada_binks. We are absolutely obsessed with the matching velour track suits from @studio.seventy_ and can’t get enough of nostalgic details from @thechaindesigns. We also work with wig makers @houseofpeluca who have been with us from the very beginning and their creative vision is always inspiring. We’re in love with the mod style of @gimmick.clothing an LA slow fashion brand and is the only brand featured that is not based in the UK. We’re very proud to work with these incredible British companies, many of whom have become friends of ours and if you like retro kitsch as much as we do, go give them a follow. 

M: Did getting out into nature nurture your creativity and connection as a couple and as collaborators?

D&T: We had such a restorative few days at the cabin. We were so grateful to be able to spend some quality time together focused on each other. We stopped at the local supermarket to stock up with food supplies and then bunked down while it poured with rain. Usually we’re on our phones replying to emails or editing photos on the computer but instead we spent the first night listening to music and playing the couples intimacy card game which we really loved. It was a lot like the newly weds game show and we felt a renewed sense of love and commitment for each other after playing it. 

The next day we took our time making coffee and experimented with making breakfast pizza in the log burner which was really fun. We spent the rest of our time making some photographs together, which will always remind us of the connection we formed in those few days. The rain finally let up but only as we were packing the car up to go home, which in hindsight was a blessing as we spent all our time truly together without any distractions in a very cosy environment. Thank you again for sharing the experience with us. We are truly grateful.

Why then does A Married Couple ignite a little spark of joy for me? Well, their tongue in cheek attitude, and their playful use of colour, props and nostalgia instantly connected me to my inner child. The details that they don’t overlook impress me to death. And the sarcastic and satirical narratives showcase intelligence and wit. And not to mention that they aren’t trying to blend in. Their confidence in standing out is what has drawn me to them in a culture of trends and sameness. It’s what has allowed them to cultivate a career out of their creativity and stand boldly in front of you, connecting you to nostalgia, to an era gone by and to a sense of childlike curiosity and wonder. All the while humouring your adult brain with their intelligence. 

I hope you enjoyed the first in our series. More exciting creatives + their cabin content being shared next month.

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