Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hani Nakkour. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hani, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I’ve thought about this before but in fragments. I think about the big picture often and what would be the defining thing in my life. In all honesty, that is a daunting question to ask yourself, especially in my shoes as someone who wants to do it all. I do hope I accomplish the goals I have in mind whether it be building a brand, creating art and photographs that are seen for decades to come, or even professing when I get older. There’s a range of legacies that I see for myself and they all will include impact, connection and storytelling of some sort. I hope people see me and my work and feel an emotion, something that they can carry within them throughout the day or even the rest of their life. I go about my day to day not thinking how I can invoke emotion or what creations would get people excited, but rather my priority is pushing whatever thoughts or emotions inside me into visible matter digitally and in print. I always tell myself after I push post, it’s not for me anymore.

Hani, 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?

For those who don’t know me, my name is Hani and I just turned 25. I started taking photos and had interest in art direction before I could even understand that this was a thing people pursued as a career. Naturally, I got into my passion with my iPhone 4 in hand and taking more photos than my storage could handle. There wasn’t this pressure or “content creation” term flying around during the birth of Instagram so it really was a time that felt so fun to be posting photos on the internet. About 7 or 8 years later, I was in college and started noticing the relevance of creativity in the social sphere. It wasn’t a hobby for me anymore and it became something I wanted to curate into a lifestyle for myself. I invested in better gear thinking I would take photographs of others and then through the pandemic I explored self portraits. I used that term as I did not know the bigger name, or what exactly to call the work I posted on instagram. I grew love for fashion, and more recently started exploring the dance between photography and garments. I know people make it seem like you easily fall into the profession you pursue, but for me it took lots of years of trialing and elevating what my taste was to finally the art I like creating now. I think this road meant to lead me here, where I have a love for taking fashion and utilizing that to speak life into photographs and visual films. I slowly realized that was the definition of fashion editorial campaigns, and a lot of what big fashion houses do to invite people into their world.

My love for photography translates to filmmaking as well. I believe the whole world I am in currently intermingles fashion, photography and cinema. Some days, simple photographs don’t convey what I am feeling inside, so I create visual pieces of art. Just recently I finished a project titled “L’artiste in the Summer” where I self-shot and produced a 47 second short with subtitles like the ones you would see in the 1950 Italian films. I hold these creations deep in my heart for some reason. I call them my baby because it truly is a complete transfer of my inner feelings and energy into a piece of art.

I believe my eye for art direction and beauty around me makes me different. I am a tastemaker and it provides me with vision that is singular to a lot of what you will see in social media. I am most proud of the editorials I was able to create with such little equipment or inspiration around me. I come from a small town with not so much of a capacity for the vision and creativity I hold, so I really was making something out of nothing. Thankfully I have had the opportunity to see parts of the world that made me notice I have a space waiting for me that will welcome my creativity and interests. I hope potential followers or fashion brands/editors know that when you see me, you will always see someone that is making art for the purpose of connection and the heck of it before it is consumed by the capitalistic machine. If I could create and wear fashion everyday just because and there was no worry about finances, I would do it no doubt.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

My audience was and still is mainly comprised of my childhood friends/peers from school. I have met many individuals along the way through creative endeavors. They laid the foundation for me and really put up with my constant rebranding and exploration of different forms of creativity. The most recent growth has been through reels and other short form video, which feels like is the greatest way to showcase yourself to the world and find your following. On TikTok, I amassed around 19,000 followers through some viral videos in 2021, but those were random transition videos. You need to be chronically online to understand transitions but essentially it’s when you take a clip before you get dressed and look nice, and then find a creative way to transition the clip to show the “after”. It didn’t go anywhere after that because I honestly feel like it wasn’t something I wanted to be known for nor worth building a following from. Just recently I found footing in growing my audience through posting short visuals/films of the world around me and I’m so happy that there have been such positive responses to these videos. They are pinned to the top of my page.

I would say for anyone just starting to build a social media presence to consider the following two things. First, if you constantly look over to the lane next to you and obsess over where someone is in their journey, they will surpass you and you will just watch. It doesn’t do you any good to compare because there is no race especially if you are trying to build your presence for the right reasons. Second, this goes along with the end of that first reason. Make sure what you are trying to put out on social media is something you can be proud of and of substance to you. I noticed for myself there was a shift because the videos that had gained traction a couple years ago I put on private because it made me cringe and I did not want that to be associated to who I was as a person. Whereas now the videos I post, I can hold my head up high and show them off because they mean the world to me.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist, is the process. I learn so much about myself through this exploration. A lot of the time I create and honestly sometimes don’t want to click share, because after that moment it doesn’t become mine anymore. Whatever happens on the web is not in my control, but the process is and I take pride in that. Then, when sharing it with my audience, it’s another reward because the connection I get and opportunity to inspire someone else makes me know I am doing something good.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://haninakkour.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haninakkour/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@haninakkour
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@haninakkourr?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

Image Credits

Hani Nakkour