Interview w/ Deanna Flinn - Photographer, Artist and Creator of a Hundred Lives of Levi’s

Photos by Deanna Flinn (portfolio), Wendy D (event) and Roberto Florencio (event)

Can you share a bit about your journey that led you to where you are today? Looking back, were there any early signs you would embrace a creative career?

I grew up in the Maritimes. When I was little, I always thought I would be a scientist. Turns out there’s a lot of math in science and I am not good at math. So I followed my love of imagery instead. I have collected magazines and images since I was 8 or 9. My grandmother used to buy the Enquirer every week and I would cut it up. I used to steal my mom’s camera when I was a bit older and use up all the film so when she wanted it to document a special occasion the film would be used up and I would be in big trouble. Later my stepdad bought me my own 35mm antique Russian camera and I used that to make images that got me into the 2-year program at the local college.

I am the youngest of a large lot of siblings and I learned how to use my alone time to my advantage. I was always creating, always doing something either with my imagination or with my hands. I had intentions of creating some kind of name for myself in this industry because I was looking for identity outside of myself and when I realized that it actually comes from within, I knew that my passion was real and it will not change.

I have been internationally published in magazines, featured in Italian Vogue, and worked on set with some very high-profile people. What I have learned and continue to nurture is not the craft, it is the connection, the community. Photography is a unique vocation that tosses you about as you pursue it. If you stay with it long enough you will surround yourself with people who will support you through this pursuit. A few decades later I have never tired of looking at images. Phones and digital never changed that for me. I am always looking, always seeing. 

As you read through this interview you will find one common thread in all these stories, answers and adventures I have been on and that is my passion for making and sustainability. I developed both long before it became something we read about daily in the news or see on our social media feeds.

Did you have any training or mentorship to help you develop your skills as a photographer, or are you self taught?

I studied photography at a community college in Halifax where I grew up, and got my first job in the industry at the only commercial photo lab in town. I ended up travelling for a while. and then moved to Vancouver in the early 2000’s where I worked in another commercial photo lab, and eventually worked as an assistant on commercial photo sets. I got to know a lot of the photographers bringing their film in, and when I was laid off from the lab, I reached out to the connections I made and began assisting.

I also worked for a while at Abbott and Tincombe. A friend bought it after they retired, and I was hired to help with the front desk and in the dark room. That was a fun gig because we printed a lot for the Archives of Vancouver and for the Vancouver Public Library. During my time at Abbott and Tincombe, I got a degree in Multimedia at UBC. I worked full time during the day and went to school at night. I wanted to learn more about the industry and how digital was changing movie making and photography. I have worked on some large productions (networks like AMC, Netflix, Amazon, NBC), worked with a few commercial photographers on a regular basis and later hired my own assistants to help me on large productions. 

After being in Vancouver for about 10 years I decided to try my hand at commercial photography work in Toronto. I lived there for 5 years and that is where I began shooting fashion. I have had a passion for fashion and clothing since I was a teen but never thought about photographing it to make a living. I spent a lot of my time shooting street photography. I would post up at a block for hours and capture life as it happened around me always concentrating on what people were wearing. It always fascinated me.

I moved back to Vancouver after having an interview at Canon Canada. This is a funny story. I was waiting for my interview, and I kept hearing the receptionist field calls from Vancouver and I thought that was interesting. I thought I could get this job and move back to Vancouver as a transfer within the company. I didn’t get the job, but I did start to dream more and more about Vancouver, so I finally told some friends that I was thinking about it and they were sad to see me possibly go but they encouraged me to create a plan. So, I got to work making a couple of phone calls and within 15 minutes I had my old apartment back and an image editing gig. I sublet my apartment, finished my last photo gig-TIFF’s 40th Anniversary and moved back. For my first 6 months back in the same apartment I moved out of 5 years ago Toronto felt like a dream

When I did return to Vancouver, I felt I needed to brush up on my commercial photography skills, my lighting skills felt weak, so I began to take courses at Langara in the part time photography program while working as an image editor and photo assistant during the day. This program set me up for great success and I even got to teach a couple of courses and work as an assistant to the instructors. I worked as an instructor at Henry’s when I was in Toronto, so I was able to transfer those skills into the classroom at Langara. I had a lot of fun.

Since then, I have spent a lot of time seeking inspiration and challenging myself to look at things differently when I am looking through the viewfinder. I am inspired by a lot of local photographers and the Magnum Street photographers. I always have a project on the go or an idea I am challenging myself to accomplish.

What were the early years like as you worked to develop your portfolio and build a client list? do you have a favorite memory or funny story you can share?

I have worked as a commercial assistant in Vancouver and then as a commercial photographer. As my skills grew, I gained access to larger projects and clients. I always have a personal project on the go, and I also do my best to network whenever I am out and about. After a while what you do and who you are become kind of synonymous so people begin to reach out when they recognize your style and have a project that they think might fit.

Choosing photography as your career is not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of time that you spend alone working on several different aspects of the business. I have found support through my peers by becoming a part of a studio and organizing a monthly meet up so we could share in the experience and not feel so alone. Having your creative talent become your career is something that is never taken lightly because the road you plan on or the one you think you want to take is never the journey you end up taking.

I have watched photography change a lot in my lifetime, and I am not that old, lol. It has been a very interesting ride to challenge myself to keep up with those changes and sustain myself financially. I have worked a lot of side jobs to keep this part of my life alive. I will never tire of it though; it’s something I practice every single day.

When you book a new client, what is your process?

Most of my clients come to me through word of mouth with a project idea in mind. My first step is to research their brand so that I can create a concept and creative brief that will encapsulate the idea. Then I would start to build my team. My first call is always to a makeup artist. I have a few that I always work with as we have a great connection. Next stop is a stylist. This happens after the brief has been accepted by the client. I like to leave a little room for this because it may take a bit of time for that to happen. In this time gap there will be some changes and once a final concept is decided upon, I will reach to a stylist I know who will work well with the team and the concept we have created.

While the creative brief is being finalized, I will create an inventory of gear I will need for the shoot and arrange any rentals I need and reach out to an assistant to check availability. I will also book a studio if it is needed. If we are choosing to shoot on location I will scout and have a few options available before the day. I do my best to make myself available during this whole process to the client, answering questions and helping any way I can so that when the shoot day arrives it goes smoothly, and we can concentrate on creating our intended idea.

During the shoot I will tether so the client can see what we are creating. If it is a larger budget shoot, I will hire a digital tech to take care of all this so that I can concentrate on shooting and working with the client to assure their result. When we have wrapped, I will send an album for selection to the client and then send the final selects to an image editor to create the final specs we need for the files.

Readers would love a favorite story - a high moment, a funny moment where things turned left, or something interesting and unexpected.

I have a funny story about working as a photo assistant as part of the stills crew on a Hallmark Film. I had no idea that they had such a cult following or their own channel. I remember thinking to myself for most of the day onset that what we were doing, creating winter in July in an airplane hanger in Vaughn was weird. When you get pulled in as an assistant often you know very little about the details of the shoot except for who you are working with, the location and the gear you’re using. It took me a while to work up the courage to ask someone about what we were doing. When I finally asked the photographer about what the production was, they got a great kick out of me not knowing or ever having heard of them. They shoot over 100 Hallmark movies every year in Vancouver.

Three years ago, you bought a 100 pair lot of jeans and began to work on your Hundred Lives of Levi's project. What inspired you to embrace this project which seems far removed from your work?

I grew up in a family of makers so using my hands to create things is second nature to me. I also am very passionate about sustainability that passion comes from a love of fashion that grew from my teenage years when I began thrifting at church bazars and Frenchie’s in my hometown of Halifax, NS. Learning about how fashion affects the environment gave me an insight on how I wanted to live. I choose to use sustainable fashion and utilize local recourses and artisans for my own wardrobe.

I am obsessed with Denim. I started to reconstruct and upcycle denim in High School. I broke my first sewing machine when I was 15, my mom still tells the story. I was cruising Facebook Marketplace and saw an ad for 100 pairs of damaged Levi’s for $1 each so I jumped on it. There is a level of quality in reselling jeans and a lot of this batch of 100 was not re-sellable. They were wearable and repairable just not re-sellable.

Creating an entire line of clothing was not my original intention. I just wanted to use all the denim that I had in a way that others could use and enjoy and possibly learn from. When you see something, it can give you inspiration to create or re-use something in a way you had never thought of before. I am not a trained designer, illustrator or seamstress, I am just someone who can make things with her hands.

The name a Hundred Lives of Levi’s was created by Christina, the owner of Revival. She created that amazing press release and gave the project this wonderful name. She deserves the credit for that. I didn’t give the project a name the entire time I was working on it. I knew my end goal was a fashion show I just wasn’t sure when it would happen or how.

Can you share about the process was like after you picked up the jeans? Did you use them all? Did you deconstruct them and how? How did you decide what each piece would look like and how to combine the different fabrics? What will you do with this collection now that it is finished?

Once I got the jeans home and lugged them up the three story walk up that I live in, I started to sort them into piles according to wearability. I removed the ones that were stretchy, denim with stretch contains plastic, that is why the fabric warps when you put it in the dryer. I donated those pairs.

I sorted a pile of the ones I wanted to keep and wear, and the rest I sorted according to repair. The ones that were really damaged I cut up and the ones that needed only moderate work I repaired. On some I added hand embroidery. I create continuous line drawings, so I embroidered these designs on the legs. I sewed so much by hand that I enlarged the knuckle on my right hand.

I choose some patterns from Pinterest for some simple tops and got to work creating them. I was sewing together the legs of the jeans so that I could cut out a pattern and make something wearable. I kept running into problems with my machines because sewing denim really needs an industrial machine. When I wanted to do something more intricate or had something specific in mind, I sought out some seamstresses. I worked with Sammy Tran and Cecilia Aduna.

The entire time I am collecting clothing people put out in the lanes in my neighborhood. What I did not want I donate. I often deconstruct them and put them back together - sweaters with holes and sweatshirts that were too worn were easy to break apart and sew back together. Sometimes I got a little crazy and pieced things together like a puzzle, layering pieces over pieces.

I have also found a lot of T-shirts, so made t-shirt wool and knitted a few things for family members. I donated some to a local artisan making toys with her daughter and kept a supply for myself for the upcoming holiday season where I will usually make gifts instead of buying. I also learned how to silk screen during the pandemic. I used one of my drawings to make silk screened T-shirts.

I love how clothing can make a person feel and I also love sustainability, to combine these two makes me very happy. The landfill is full of clothing, and I try to do my part to prevent at least a little of that.

In closing, is there anything you would like to share - something coming up for you, something you'd like people to know about you as an artist, or a favorite quote that is your go-to?

With this project behind me, I am moving back into photography with more of a focus on refining my process. I am leaning away from commercial work and into working with ideas and long-term projects that I have been incubating for the past few years. I have an aspiration on where I would like my photography to go and am doing my best to work towards that. It is important with any kind of art to practice it so that it becomes stronger and stronger. That is what I am doing.

I will always be making something and always be obsessed with denim, thrifting and clothes. Maybe one day all my obsessions will marry into one.

Links -

• Website - Deanna Flinn Photography - Fashion Lifestyle and Editorial.
• Instagram - @deannaflinn.photography
• Facebook - www.facebook.com/deannaflinnphotograph