Candid Conversations: Hassan Hajjaj and Eliška Sky

Picasso and Monet, Stephen Shore and Richard Avedon all have one thing in common: each one has a distinctive style. But how does a unique style develop, and is there a point where it becomes a constraint?

The portfolio of visual artist and Canon Ambassador Eliška Sky brims with colour and creative concepts. Throughout her 13-year career, she's built up a body of personal and commercial work that is bold and playful and often provides visual commentary on important issues such as climate change and diversity.

Here, she speaks with fellow art photographer and Canon Ambassador Hassan Hajjaj. Hassan has lived and worked between Morocco and London since childhood. Over a 30-year career he has created joyful images that mix documentary photography with portraiture and fashion with set design, as well as featuring self-styled characters from the street. With his work exhibited in the British Museum, London's V&A, Brooklyn Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, he's not only successfully straddled the art and commercial worlds but also become easily identifiable.

The two photographers met virtually to discuss inspiration, developing a style, and striking a balance between commercial and purely artistic work.

Eliška: It's a pleasure to talk with you. I really love your work – your use of colour and how you combine patterns. Colour is something very important for my work as well. I know you grew up between Marrakesh and London, so did this influence this aspect of your work?

Hassan: If I'd lived in only one of these places, I definitely wouldn't be doing the work I'm doing. Growing up in Morocco gave me my tools and my tradition, and an understanding of my country and culture. London was about discovery – finding new things, meeting new people, influences from music, art, fashion and film.

Eliška: I read that there were a lot of studio photographers in Marrakesh when you were growing up, where you had to go and dress up?

Hassan: Yes, you had photo studios, with the beach for the summer, a plastic racing car, one where you dress up as a cowboy… My studio photography really stemmed from that idea.

Eliška: You always have frames around your pictures, or you have patterns as a frame. Originally I thought it was just an image multiplied, but I later realised that you're building frames made out of objects and products. What's the meaning of the objects within your frames?

Hassan: My early work, from probably 1991 until the mid-90s, was called Graffix from the Souk, and the idea was to collect all Arabic products that I grew up with in Morocco and shoot them. I started printing them on canvas, to make them look somewhere between a photograph and a painting. Then I made my installation called The Salon, and I would show things from my culture that could be looked at as being "cool" – because in the 80s, when you said "I'm from Morocco", people would think of camels, tagine, things like that...

Eliška: So there was a westernised view?

Hassan: Yes, it was dated. The other thing is that I've seen some old paintings from past centuries with decorative frames made for them at the time. I wanted my photography's frames to be part of it. It's also about having that repeated pattern, like the mosaics in Morocco. And then, sometimes, I would play around with the brands according to the image – sometimes, if I have women, I'll have chicken spam, because in English there is that sexist term "chick" for a woman.

Hassan: Something that has heart in the work, basically.

Eliška: Exactly, exactly. I mean, that's what it should be about, right? Presenting yourself through your work.

Hassan: Yes. I've been commissioned for fashion shoots before, and I've had to stand up for that. I've always said, "If you really want a fashion shoot, get a fashion photographer", because I've always refused to take pictures with models in the picture. I try to have real people. I have no makeup artist, no hair stylist – none of them. If you want a fashion shoot, I'm the wrong person – a fashion photographer will understand what they do, and that world. However, you will get some people, magazines or brands who understand, and that's when you have that great moment.

Eliška: I saw in your interviews that you like people to really interact with your work and touch it – it's not just a photograph, it's an experience.

Hassan: Yes, because then you're inside the work. And once you're sitting there, you're part of it. You might look at the table and realise it's a road sign – because you're inside of it.

Eliška: I love that. You said that the work you do is a lot about empowerment? You're taking these everyday objects, really cheap fabrics, but you're making something really unique from it, and you're giving a power to the people by them being the "rock stars" of your photographs.

Hassan: Totally. My Rock Star series. In the 70s and 80s, when you said "rock star", you thought of a white guy with long hair, sunglasses, the leather jacket, the tight black trousers, and a guitar. That's what we got sold as a rock star. It's taking a name and re-owning it by having boxers as a rock star or a belly dancer as a rock star. Again, playing around with these words – iconic things that meant something different to me.

Four years ago, I started a project here in Morocco. I felt selfish, just doing my own work, so I started an exhibition to champion Moroccan photographers. I had many, many photography friends back in the day, before I was even into photography, that helped me along my journey. I'm at a stage and age where I wanted to give back and help in the same way.

Eliška: I also do the courses with Canon – part of the Canon Student Development Programme – and there is definitely feedback there. And I really love to see other people's work, see what their mission and vision is. I find it very exciting for my creativity, even.

Hassan: You know, some people like to work on their own, and others like to talk. It depends on each personality and how much time they have. I'm quite active with a lot of photographers.

Eliška: Your style is so specific. Did you always create with that style, or did it develop?

Hassan: I was doing the studio shoots from the beginning, documenting people. It was influenced by the fact I've only got three pictures of myself from the age of 1 to 13. [Hassan was 12 when his family moved from Morocco to London.]

From my experience, you just have to believe in what you're doing. You have to work hard, you have to have the passion, you have to get up when you fall down and not give up. It takes a long time.

Eliška: I find it incredible that, when I look at your work, I know it's you – you keep that aesthetic going. I find it's quite difficult to keep just one style, because there are different clients or there are different jobs.

Hassan: Well, that also comes with time. If you think of Keith Haring, for example, you usually think of the specific style of work he's known for: the colourful drawings. If he did something slightly different – and he will do something different, because he's an artist – you're not going to recognise it as his work. Yet all the collectors are only going to want to buy the work that he's known for. That can kill your art. You have to be careful that having a rigid style doesn't hamper you in the long term. As a photographer, I'm a big fan of black and white photography, but most people know my colourful work.

I get a lot of the younger generation asking "How did you make it?". I ask what "making it" means from their perspective. They say it's about becoming famous and making money and having all these shows and stuff. It's not about that. It's about whether you love what you're doing and letting that take you on a journey.