Category: Face of the Month

December 2009 Face of the Month – Pratima Anae

December Face of the Month, Pratima Anae: Interviewed by Studio 838

Hey, Pratima.  What is your birth city?

Manhattan, Kansas.

Oh . . . when did you get outta Dodge?

Ha ha, when I was six months old.

Ah, O.K. Then, where did you go?

I went to Indiana, a little Amish town named Shipshewana .

So, you’re Amish?

Well, my parents are Mennonite.

Mennonite?  That’s funny because you look, well, more East Asian Indian than “Indianaian.”

I grew up in a family that held the belief that religion is a personal relation of a cultural expression, and wanted to embrace the community that embraced them.   When we lived in Shipshewana (Indiana), we went to a Mennonite church; and in India, we went to temple.

That sounds like a beautiful perspective to have. Have you spent a lot of time in India?

We would summer in Hyderabad. I loved it. I wanted my parents to leave me there.  It was full of things like suitcases with scorpion surprises.  And the city was colored the shades of sunset.

But you didn’t stay in Indiana?

No. I felt like moving to Manhattan. Manhattan, New York, was a bit of my birthright.

Love it.  What was your first Manhattan address?

307 E. 91st Street.

What sent you to New York City?

Modeling.

Your first agency?

Ford.

What brought you to Los Angeles?

Acting.  I believe cinema to be the most relevant art form today.

You have side interests as well, right?

Yes.  I like to read–mostly classic literature, biographies, painting, cinema, and law.

You went to law school, right?

Yes.  Lots and lots of reading. I actually finished in New York while I was working as a model.  I remember I had a casting my first year of law and it was a callback casting, and I got the job and it was going to pay for me to live for an entire summer; so I had to take the job, but I had to study for the exam at the shoot. I had this huge law book at the photo shoot–it was an underwear campaign.

The following questions came from the infamous “Marcel Proust” questionnaire:

What is your most marked characteristic?

One that I believe every human possesses . . . the ability to love.

What is your favorite color?

White, because all the colors of light together create white.

What is your favorite flower?

Jasmine, as it reminds me so of India, and its intoxication.

What would you like to be?

Be myself without reservation.

What is your dream of happiness?

Peace of mind.

How would you like to die?

In the midst of a dream of happiness.

See Pratima’s Editorial.

November 2009 Face of the Month – Niki Dean

Face of the month Niki Dean, Photographed by Ash Gupta Studio 838Niki Dean, you wore cutoffs last summer, and we drove the jeep down to the lake with a guitar. It was perfect! I understand you lived in Canada?

Yes, I grew up in Canada, but spent my early childhood in Grenoble, France, a beautiful city at the foothills of the French Alps. It’s known as the Capital of the Alps.

French was my first language until we moved to Canada. I was just turning ten. But I feel like I have since become a citizen of the world.

Tell me about when and where you born?

I was born September 18 th . I’m a Virgo. I was a child of the 90s. I went to school in Ottawa and was the only non blond-hair-blue-eyed kid in my school. Ottawa was considered to be multicultural, and I had this awful mushroom haircut . . . this bowl haircut, which is only cute now in retrospect.

But you got out of Ottawa . . .

After a year, I moved to Toronto, and that’s where I really began to grow up in Canada. Although I started traveling the world modeling when I was16 and found myself going all over Asia, Europe, and South Africa.

So finding yourself . . .

I grew up as a bit of an outsider, living for 90s rock music. I started painting, sculpting, acting, and just being creative. I realized I was the freest when I was being creative. I was always fond of people and all aspects of them, hence why I love acting, and I always seem to be painting human figures, particularly women.

What is your idea of earthly happiness?

Inner turbulence.

What do you want to be?

Creative.

What qualities do you most like in a man?

Passion and integrity.

What is your favorite drug?

B-12.

What in your mind would be the greatest misfortune?

To never have loved or been loved.

Who are your favorite painters?

[I like] Amedeo Modigliani, Andre Berton, Edvard Munch, and Claude Monet.

What do you most dislike?

Stupidity.

What is your present state of mind?

Free.

Motto?

. . . In Latin I think it’s, “Expectare nihilum,

. . . In Latin I think it’s, timere nullum, sum liber”
or
“Expect nothing, fear no one, be free.”

By Studio 838 Ash Gupta

See the editorial.