Who are you?
I'm Michelle, but my friends call me Miesh. Born and raised in South Africa but I'm currently working in London. I'm a model, signed with Boss Models in South Africa and recently Zone Models in London, and freelance creative (I take portraits, style and do some illustration on the side when I have time).
What are you inspired by?
I'm inspired by everything really. I aspire to capture the beauty of my surroundings whilst staying true to the rawness of it all.
What was the last movie you watched?
The last movie I watched was actually a really interesting documentary on Sixto Rodriguez. It's all about how two of his South African fans started looking for him after they realized there was no trace of him anywhere despite his music being incredibly popular in South Africa during the 70's. Most of the documentary was shot in SA. I actually went for a haircut in Soho and met a man, completely by chance, who is from SA. We set off talking about home and his friend mentioned how she was blown away by the beauty of Cape Town after seeing the film, which obviously set me off rushing home to go get Netflix out.
What was the last book you read?
I'm in the process of reading a book called The Help by Kathryn Stockett. My mom handed me her copy on my way to the airport the day I left for London, so it's a little souvenir to remind me of her, but it's actually a great read. I found myself in tears after watching the movie so I'm definitely excited to finish this one!
Do you have any role model?
I wouldn't say I have a specific role model but I am inspired by so many people! Mostly photographers right now, but I find it changes constantly based on what projects I'm busy with. A very talented photographer I'm following right now is Fanny Latour-Lambert.. She's a French fashion photographer and she's been blowing my mind lately. I can never keep my eyes off SA though, we have amazing talent in the shadow of Table Mountain! For example some of my close friends Luke Kuisis and Steve Marais, two very talented photographers based in Cape Town.
What is your next creative project?
I'm currently working on a couple of editorial projects with my boyfriend, Ollie Ali. He's also an amazing photographer, and we're aiming on getting our work into some fashion publications. Very excited about this one and London is the most incredible backdrop!
What do you like about Portfoliobox?
I had been looking for a way to get my work up online for a while but could never really decide which platform to use until Ollie introduced me to Portfoliobox. He's been using it for a while so he got me started on it. I'd actually only just been postponing it because I thought it would be a huge task, something I would have to spend hours working on but it was so user friendly and fun to do I ended up loving it. Loads of templates to choose from so I can customize it to look however I want it to, which is such a plus! As a creative I'm constantly looking for platform to express myself on and Portfoliobox just ticks all my boxes.
