We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Franklina Hovor a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Franklina, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I always knew I was going to be creative full-time. In school, I was really only interested in projects that included some sort of creative tasks. I think for me its more so I wish I took it more seriously at a younger age. I had too much free time on my hands and I definitely should have painted more, drawn more, and created more youtube videos. I had a youtube channel where I created “artistic videos” for fun. All the things I did when I was younger for fun have laid the foundation for my creative career today.

Franklina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I would describe myself as a confused artist. Right now I am in this weird transitioning stage. I provided photography services all over the DMV area and I did a lot of families, maternity, prom, etc. You know what I would call traditional family-style shoots. After my completing my degree at Towson and I think I want to focus more on fashion photography and conceptual art. I still will do the previous services that I provided but in a different way. I am proud of myself honestly for getting to a point where I can make decisions like this. Photography was always a hobby of mine and just ended up here. When I started charging people it was weird, but now I am contracted with a couple of companies and that’s insane to me. Despite the money, I fear if I only do photography for work that I’ll lose the joy in it. That’s why I am focusing my photography on fashion/concepts. I also have other skills like graphic design, video, and web design. I am going to explore more of that this year and I am hoping people start booking more for these things.

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

Seeing people literally glow while posing. Seriously! A lot of people I take pictures of don’t really model so its fun to see that side of them bloom out of them while I’m coaching them. That and also the initial reactions when I send them the images.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think we need to create better policies and laws to protect creatives. It can be difficult to define what exactly is “art” and it’s difficult to protect it for this very reason. Nowadays a dance move or someone’s work can go viral on Twitter and by the next week, a company could be using it in their own advertisement without the originator receiving any beneficiary credit. I mean this for all spectrums of art. Even in fashion, there has to be something better than a cease and desist to prevent fast-fashion companies from stealing original designs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.linasimpsonn.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/linasimpsonn

Image Credits
Shot and Edited Franklina Hovor