1. What is your name?
Anna Mala

2. What is your professional practice?
I work as a fashion stylist.

3. What did you make?
Ongoing series of self-portraits and still lives.

4. Why did it need to be made?

As a stylist, I’m almost always working as part of a team. As much as I enjoy it, the introvert in me craves solitary creative work. There is something thrilling in making images entirely on my own—without having to talk to anyone or feeling a pressure to perform. Ideas can happen quickly, and I can often see results almost immediately. I tend to work in a scrappy, instinctive way, building props, creating simple sets, styling myself, allowing the work to evolve intuitively rather than according to a plan.

5. What does this work give you that your commissioned work doesn’t?

I enjoy the collaborative nature of my profession, but when that layer is removed — along with any brief or a deadline — I can focus solely on the image itself. That feels so liberating. These personal experiments allow me to access something more instinctive and unfiltered — a part of myself that wants to be expressed without refinement or approval. The images give me a sense of freedom, play, and discovery that is difficult to find in commissioned context.