Lope Navo, fashion photographer, is writing a book

He’s one of the the Philippines’ most successful fashion photographers, published worldwide in magazines from L’Officiel to Esquire. But these days, Lope Navo isn’t picking up his camera. “I’m searching for my voice,” he said. “I feel like I matured in the past months at a really fast rate. When I look at my older pictures, it’s not me anymore. It’s a different person.”

Around a year ago, the photographer, blogger and social media enthusiast moved to Berlin to take a much-needed reprieve from the fashion industry. Now he’s focused on adding another dimension to his body of work: becoming a published author. 

“(In fashion, there is) intelligence, but not a lot of it is deep,” explained Navo. “You can’t attach that to a lot of fashion people, even the gods, Karl Lagerfeld or Anna Wintour…it’s not until I met my other life writing a book where I learned to dig deeper.”

Writing could be in Navo’s blood, whose name comes partially from the prolific Spanish poet and playwright Lope de Vega. But it’s a passion for photography that brought him around the world, from living in New York to Dubai, Rio de Janeiro and Hong Kong.

 

 

A photo posted by Løpe Navó (@wolf_cock) on

 

In 2013, Navo reached a career pinnacle, shooting for Christian Dior’s “Lady Dior’s As Seen By” exhibition. His photograph was displayed alongside the work of other acclaimed photographers like Peter Lindbergh and Nan Goldin, and even Elephant Man director David Lynch.

At 31 years old at the time, Navo had already lived in cities across four continents and reached goals he never thought could be attainable for a young boy born and brought up in Manila. Fashion was always “an eternal playground, fun, superficial and a young industry where even if you’re a 74-year-old you can have the heart of a 17-year-old.” It was everything the young and accomplished shutterbug dreamed and aspired of, but yet it wasn’t.

“I was a gypsy and I reached my goals so fast,” he said. “But I didn’t feel the satisfaction. Then I went to Berlin on a holiday for the very first time and the city just showed me so much realism I didn’t see in Milan and Paris where I frequented for fashion weeks. It’s like the one night stand that I didn’t forget.” 

Concurrently, Navo found himself reading more and rejecting magazine-ready ideals of beauty. He started researching behind the scenes of high fashion, and venturing beyond veiled curtains he had only peeked behind before.

 

 

A photo posted by Løpe Navó (@wolf_cock) on

 

“There is a dark side to the industry and that is sweatshops,” said Navo. “It’s the biggest elephant in the room in fashion. If you work in an industry where your job is to support that directly or indirectly, it doesn’t make you feel very good…I don’t want to be the snake that bites the hand that feeds me, but how can I correct that inside myself? People don’t talk about it as much as they should.”

It turned out that Berlin, with its dilapidated communist aesthetic and its grim and gritty history over the latest century, was just what this maverick was longing for. The German capital, known as a convergence point for anti-commercialism, creativity and ultra-liberal ideology seemed like the perfect place to reach new self-discovery. 

Even in a nonconformist city like Berlin, It’s still safe to say Navo always stands out. He’s constantly draped head-to-toe in black fabric and silver chains, wearing a pair of dark sunglasses even at night. So what started out as a vacation has now become something of an unofficial sabbatical from photography to pursue another lifelong dream, penning and publishing a fictional novel.

 

 

A photo posted by Løpe Navó (@wolf_cock) on

 

“Fashion photography and working on a book are two very demanding things,” Navo explained. “If I don’t slow down photography I will never finish the book, I will never have time. I’m not a robot to internalize the book. I’m serious about it and I want to write an amazing book.”

While he may not be photographing regularly with heavy-duty equipment, Navo’s Instagram feed is evolving daily with snapshots from life in Berlin. He’s obsessed with art shows and exhibitions, museum and café culture, the city’s graffiti scene and clubbing in the Berghain, known by many as the world’s most famous underground nightspot. For Navo, it’s all hedonistic inspiration to pour into his current project.

“I’ve lived on five continents now for three decades and I can tell you now that Berlin could have the craziest, kookiest people,” he said. “It’s perfect for if you want to be inspired, for example writing a fiction book, nurturing and internalizing characters and giving birth to them. (As an author), you’re actually like a god and you need inspiration to write these fictional characters. Berlin is perfect for that and you see characters everywhere on the street.”

 

 

A photo posted by Løpe Navó (@wolf_cock) on

 

The novel is what Navo is calling a fictional retelling of “political folklore”. Without revealing too much, it is shaping up to be pieced together with history, conspiracy, teen drama and vampire glamour. The process is unlike anything Navo’s ever done before, he says, from the challenges of creating breath-taking fantasy to the mechanics of writing in English as a non-native speaker.

“The main protagonist is Sydney Goodchild, an 18-year-old boy from New York City. It’s not really about photography. It’s about world history, politics, conspiracy theories, immortality. The working title is Sydney Goodchild,” he said. The book is on second draft and he targets a mid-2015 release. There is “no important or significant Filipino character in it except for the mention of Magellan’s death.” 

 

 

A photo posted by Løpe Navó (@wolf_cock) on

 

“When it comes to photography, I’m an expert for so many years now,” he said. “It’s a cake walk compared to writing. Writing is really scary sometimes. You keep on second-guessing yourself. You are your own worst critic and there’s nowhere to hide from yourself. Writing is sometimes really exhausting emotionally psychologically. For me, photography is just not like that.” Navo counts Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, JK Rowling and SE Hinton as his literary inspirations.

Since the novel’s storyline takes place in New York, Navo’s plan is to eventually return there. The only way to get the Big Apple’s vibe and atmosphere just right is to be fully immersed in it once again. Despite this, one of the places Navo misses the most is Brazil. That’s where he lived for two years and shot some of his biggest works, including for Dior and just last April the cover of L’Officiel Hommes Korea photographing Brazilian model Marlon Teixeira (who’s been the face of everything from Diesel Fuel fragrance to Armani Exchange).

“I’m a Filipino who loves Brazil, because it reminds me of Philippines but only the most positive parts of the country that I was born in,” he said. “If I want to build characters develop characters, Brazil could be another novel who knows.”

As for if Navo will set his sights on reaching new heights as a fashion photographer once again, it’s uncertain. First and foremost, he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed into doing just one medium forever, also remembering the early days when he studied fine arts and graphic design and his first paychecks came from paintings.

 

 

A photo posted by Løpe Navó (@wolf_cock) on

 

“I think I will never give up taking pictures whether they take me back into fashion photography or another photography industry,” said Lope Navo. “But I will always love taking pictures. It’s not about the act of taking pictures it’s about telling a story. Telling a story for me whether by words or images, I will always love telling a story.”



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