Naturel by Neda Rajabi

 Naturel by Neda Rajabi 
Photography: Neda Rajabi
Model: Sophie Bogdan

Actress and model Sophie Bogdan joined Neda for the day, bringing a selection of her own clothes. “I met her once before. I immediately liked her boyish attitude and the way she just does not care about what you might think of her,” Neda says, and adds “She’s clever and super cool to work with and I’m sure it was not the last time.”
“I wanted her to remain herself for the shoot. So she brought in her own clothes she felt comfortable with and which reflect her own personality the best. For the same reason she hardly wears any make up. ”

For Naturel, Neda found inspiration in nature, warmth and a little bowl of mirrors projecting small rays of light: “- It’s an ugly little thing, but since it’s the most beautiful thing watching its reflections on a sunny day on my walls and ceiling when the sun is shining on it, it was pretty hard throwing it away – typical case for outshining inner beauty… Anyways, I resisted throwing it away and thought instead I should use the reflection effect for a shoot. After seeing the results of the shoot I kept it.”
Neda explains she can generally get inspired by anything and everything, but it’s usually the things the eye can’t see that inspires her the most: “- Wind, warmth or heat, relaxation, tension or even such random things like a reflection or the way a piece of paper is folded.”

That she was going to become a fashion photographer was never really planned, but her fascination for fashion has been there from an early age: “- I started buying Vogue and Elle as a little girl gathering my pocket money and stuffing my face with chocolate while flipping through them. At that time I wasn’t thinking about taking pictures myself but I was so under the charm of the beautiful imaginary world of the photographs. Later I fooled around with the analogue camera of my parents but I didn’t really loose myself in it.”

After that she felt becoming a fashion designer would be more her, creating physical three-dimensional things: “- As a consequence I ended up as a product designer. I still loved photography but rather as a consumer. It was actually an encounter with a good friend of mine that led me to my first decent camera. We kept talking about photographers, pictures – composition, colors, moods and at some point he pushed me to get one for myself. He was right. I found myself addicted to photography and to get stories of mine in magazines. So it rather “happened” to me recently and I am very happy when people like my work.”

- By  Marius Troy