Wiissa is photography duo Vanessa Hollander & Wilson Philippe. They have roots everywhere from Minnesota, Brazil, France and Miami. And have photographed just about every strange subculture and genre you can think of in music and fashion, as well as mainstream outlets like The Huffington Post. But the thing that we love is their ability to take us way back, and we think you’ll agree.
What Youth: Where are you from?
Wilson Phillippe: Vanessa is Brazilian American but grew up in Minnesota and Miami. And I am French and grew up in France and Miami.
How’d you get money to buy your first camera?
Santa Claus got us our first film camera, a Pentax K1000.
When did you start taking it seriously and realize that it could be a profession?
We started taking it seriously when we used film for the first time — that’s when we found out how to get the look we wanted and it inspired us to push ourselves further to work harder.
Did you learn most photo stuff from mentors in the industry or professors at school?
We actually never had any photography mentors. We wish we did as I’m sure that would have sped things up! We learned from trial and error and looking up how to do certain things on the Internet. We don’t study photography in school.
Whats in your camera arsenal? What are your main cameras? Portraits? Lifestyle? Give me the run down on what you shoot with for what.
Our camera arsenal is pretty similar for every shoot: Polaroid 600se, Nikon FM3A, Contax T2, and our Nizo Super 8 Camera. Polaroid and FM3A are our main go-to cameras, the Contax is used in case we need to get shots quickly or at night, and the Nizo is used whenever we’re making a video!
Who are some of your biggest influences making work right now?
Wes Anderson, Harley Weir, the Babe Rainbow, Kristofski, Warren Fu, Julian Casablancas, Dimitri Basil.
Anybody you wanna thank for where you’re at now?
Our families for believing in us and all of the people who follow us and comment/like/share our work! You guys keep us going and without you we’d be nowhere!
Any new projects coming up?
We’re finishing up a personal short film/fashion film about groupies, called “Midnight Ramblers.” We’re finishing the editing process, so release should hopefully be very soon! We’re taking the word groupie back to what originally meant: simply being with the group — and showing some of the original groupies and their fashion legacy in the film.
Wiissa also does a great job of putting their images in motion. Check out a handful of their videos below: