We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ada Retegan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ada below.

Hi Ada, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

For sure, this idea had been brewing in my mind for a while, I just didn’t say it out loud until much later. I think for a big part of my youth, I had this mindset that I should “do the right thing.” After high school, that meant following what most of my friends were doing, so I enrolled in a technical university.

I still remember sitting through lectures that made me feel like a stranger. I became unhappy very quickly, and that discomfort kind of forced me to start looking for another path. At the time, I was already pretty passionate about photography, I had been using it as a way to express myself visually, but I still saw it as a side thing.
To be honest, I grew up with the idea that only certain careers were considered respectable, and being an artist wasn’t one of them. I had a lot of admiration for creative people, but I didn’t yet see myself as one of them. So in a way, that low moment helped me let go of the cognitive dissonance I had about the creative fields.

Not long after that, I decided to drop out of university and apply for a BA in photography, in a different country. Looking back, it does feel like I took a pretty big risk, even if I wasn’t fully aware of it at the time. But from that point on, I knew that if I was going to follow this path, I had to give it everything I had.

And I’m still doing that.

Ada, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I finished my BA in photography in Berlin a little over two years ago, and since then, I’ve been weaving my way deeper into the industry. I like to see photography as my entry ticket to a world full of possibilities, because it has allowed me to explore different mediums and it has offered me new ways of seeing, thinking, and bringing things into existence.

I create across several photographic forms, from conceptual still life, to fully experimental series. I’m especially drawn to images that are ambiguous, the kind that make you pause and question what you’re looking at. Most of the time, you will not find reality shown as it is. But rather, I tend to deliver images with a surreal twist, little excerpts from dream-like worlds. While there are generally concepts behind, and I love storytelling through images, I think, before anything else, I’m trying to evoke a feeling. My photographic universe is very much dominated by strong colours, strange atmospheres and funky creatures.

A lot of my ideas emerge from themes such as human-nonhuman entanglement, speculative fiction, posthumanist and anti-speciesist perspectives. Through my personal work, I aim to build deeper connections to the ones around me, especially with the non-human others.

In addition to my personal work, I also collaborate with other artists, musicians, and brands, on portraiture and visual storytelling. I’m especially drawn to projects that have a strong conceptual foundation and allow room for experimentation.

Lately, I’ve found myself gravitating towards working more with my hands, alongside photography, and I am in the early stages of developing a small brand of handcrafted objects. It feels like a natural step and extension of my visual work: slowness, attention to detail, emotional presence. It is still in the making, but I’m excited to explore how these ideas can come to life in different forms and materials. You might notice that one of the images I submitted reflects this direction, I’ll leave it up to you to discover it.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

As mentioned earlier, a main focus in my work is the relationship between humans and other-than-human beings, who are often seen as ”lesser”, and are mostly the background of the human narrative. It is not only about the visual interest, it’s also an ethical and emotional perspective. In most of my personal projects, I approach the creative process with the belief that I am not a separate being from nature, and that the world around me is my teacher. I try to give voice to other beings that are overlooked, and offer them space in my artistic world. That can mean blurring the boundaries between species, imagining speculative futures where hierarchies between species dissipate, or simply creating visual spaces where other-than-human beings are centered with care and treated with respect and admiration. Sometimes it comes in more subtle ways, through shapes, colours or blurred textures, and other times it becomes more dreamlike or symbolic, taking on forms that exist outside of what we know as “real.”

I hope that when people encounter my work, they’re invited to reflect on their own entanglements with the world, and to value the life form beyond of our own.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

What I see as the most rewarding part of being a creative person, is the fact that it pushes me to be present. To observe, to connect, to process, to express. I have learned that I am happiest when I create. Over time, I’ve also learned to love the process, and not just the final result. Getting lost in the process of making, coming up with intuitive ways to move forward, letting ideas evolve with trial and emotion, that’s my comfort zone.

I believe that creativity comes in many shapes and sizes, and so many people engage with it one way or another, whether it’s baking a cake, growing a garden, or finding an innovative solution to a problem. I find that incredibly beautiful. For me, artistic expression is a pillar of inner fulfilment.

There’s something special about bringing a thought from the depths of the mind into the light of the world, and in doing so, fostering connection with others. When something is created, it also gives space for others to feel and experience something too. When someone sees a piece and they tell me it made them feel seen or understood, that is the moment when I feel truly rewarded.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://adaretegan.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adaretegan/

Image Credits

Ada Retegan