Who are you?
I'm Tanya. I live in Edinburgh, Scotland, and have been creating photographic art under the name RockstarVanity for over a decade although I've been taking pictures for about as long as I can remember.
What are you inspired by?
Dreams, nightmares, strange experiences, films, music, beautiful places, other people's faces, overheard conversations, details in everyday objects...pretty much anything. Inspiration for art comes from all over the place, not just things I can point my camera at. I like to show a different view of familiar things and I also love creating weird and wonderful make-up and lighting effects. I almost always have the finished photograph in my head first, then work towards making it a reality.
What was the last movie you watched?
I recently rewatched Antichrist and it was as amazing and disturbing as the first time I saw it. I love Lars von Trier's films and Antichrist is definitely my favourite. It's horrific in the extreme (seriously, not for those with a delicate disposition!) and has the most gloriously weird and dark aesthetic. I've always had a passion for horror, especially films that don't shy away from showing the most gruesome details, and the genre has inspired a lot of my photographic work over the years.
What was the last book you read?
I'm in the middle of reading The Scattered and the Dead by Tim McBain and L.T. Vargus. It's part of a series of stunningly character driven novels set in a post-apocalyptic landscape, so it ticks my boxes for both horror and human drama.
Do you have any role model?
I've always adored Joel-Peter Witkin's art because he works with such challenging subject matter and makes really strong statements with his images. His photographs are created with incredible attention to detail and I love how unashamedly strange they are. They're not for everyone, but that's part of the appeal.
What is your next creative project?
I don't really have any firm plans at the moment but I've realised that pretty much everything I've talked about here involves horror, so it might be something a bit dark cause that seems to be the direction my mind is nudging me in right now.
What do you like about Portfoliobox?
I love the flexibility. I'd tried a few different portfolio sites before but none of them quite hit the spot, mostly because the gallery options weren't exactly what I wanted or because they didn't have the option to have more than a few lines of text anywhere. Portfoliobox allows me to create a website that not only shows off my work at its best but also gives me space to share plenty of information.
