Florencia Villa
Photographer, Fine Artist, and New York Film Academy Professor
Some people will say they have a fire that burns inside them, fueled by the need for success. But Florencia ‘Flor’ Villa, named for a flower, something that symbolizes delicacy, beauty, and serenity, burns with all the explosive energy of gunpowder.
Photo from Flor’s fine art series, ‘Flaca Escopeta’
‘Flor’ is a 25 year old Argentinian photographer based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York and is well on her way to fitting into Forbes 30 under 30. Her road to success, as every road to anywhere, has come with its challenges but she not only faced them head on, she attacked them, demanding her place as one of the next up and coming photographers in New York City.
When she was only fifteen, Flor, a timid little girl, too shy to even approach her parents about her grand idea, wrote a letter, more like a proposal, stating that she wanted to attend the one month acting program at the New York Film Academy in Manhattan. Her negotiation and persuasion skills already apparent, she convinced her family to come on a one month trip with her so she could attend the school. With an instant love for the city and all it had to offer, Flor told herself, as well as her family, that when she graduates high school, she will come to New York City to get her degree. But life is full of unexpected challenges; ones that push you to your very limit, but when overcome, bring you higher than ever before. We are the challenges we overcome.
One week before she was to start her senior year of high school, Flor’s father unexpectedly passed due to unforeseen complications. A shift in her life took place, creating uncertainty for the future and a fear to leave her family in such a trying time. With the final year approaching, all her fellow students were starting to choose where they wanted to study, what they wanted to get their degree in, and basically planning out the rest of their lives. Even in a stable and comfortable situation, that decision can seem impossible. So with her family’s future in mind, and her worry about uncertainty, Flor applied for med school in Argentina. She spent her final year of high school taking sciences and maths to gain the credits needed and got in. But a week before she was due to start, she got cold feet.
‘A few days before my dad died, we went on a walk which was crazy because we had never done that before, something felt different, and on that walk, he told me has worked his entire life to give us the financial stability to do what we wanted to do in life. I want you to choose your career and your college based on your passion, not your need.’
At the time, his words sounded like any fathers; supportive, caring, wise, but after his passing, those words became so much more. They became a mantra to Flor, a goal to achieve. After dropping out of med school, she pursued her passion for photography at two separate schools simultaneously. One, a four year BFA program for advertising and the other, a small course taught by a famous Argentinian photographer. After nearly two years in these courses, Flor had amassed experience with Adobe programs, photography techniques, graphic design, and studio lighting all by the age of 19. But during a brunch with her family, her older brother asked her, ‘Why aren’t you in New York?’ Flor was caught off guard, a little surprised with the accusation and too stunned to actually get any words out but obviously saying, ‘how could I leave the family after what happened? How can I leave Argentina, what do you mean why am I not there?’ Even in her retelling of the story, I could feel those questions pouring out of her memory. His response was simple.
‘Your dream since you were 15 was to live in New York. We are fine here. You are okay. Just go. Apply right now, and go live your dream.’
Flor applied for the one year conservatory program at NYFA in June of 2017 and was on a flight, alone, for the big city, in September.
Argentina, especially where Flor grew up, is a fairly dangerous place to live. She was very sheltered as a young girl, living in a gated community, being driven to school every day, keeping inside her little bubble as to not be exposed to the harsh realities that lay outside. But New York, the big city, the life seen on screen, was pure freedom. To ride the subway alone, to travel alone, to experience a city without any hesitations or reservations, no one to push their agenda, no one else’s opinions driving her own, was the driving force that opened Flor’s mind to the incredible possibilities that laid before her.
I don’t know many people who can say this but Flor told us that New York felt like home. It felt right, like she was meant to be there and just by navigating the city with her, you can see it so apparently. This city is her home. It is who she is. Walking around with her makes the city feel different. The air is cleaner, the colors are more vibrant, the people are kinder. She radiates this energy that transforms this harsh city into a blossoming neighborhood of possibilities.
Flor’s Mother: Celia
One of my favorite quotes, literally tattooed on my body is from Baz Lurhman’s speech titled, Wear Sunscreen; a commencement address that uses his own life experience to illustrate the beauties of the world. In it, he states, ‘Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.’
I’ve found that stereotype to be true in myself that I found the city changing me for the worse. I was less patient, more irritated, less and less happy by the day, but Flor has embraced the insanity, harnessed that hectic energy and compressed the coal of the city into a diamond, keeping her own wonderful personality along the way.
After completing the one year course at the New York Film Academy, Flor wanted to continue her education with a four year degree in photography. At only 21 years old, Flor was accepted to Parsons School of Design but rather than entering the scholastic system and following the rest of the sheep, Flor barged into the head of the photography programs office, portfolio in hand, her spicy Argentinian accent booming out of her tiny 5 foot body, and demanded that she begin her bachelor degree from the third year.
In order to understand Flor and where this confidence comes from, you have to understand the level of experience she gained in the few months following NYFA ’s graduation. Flor immediately was hired by Lindsay Adler, one of the most famous fashion and beauty photographers in New York City, traveling the world with her and her husband, fellow NYFA professor and Profoto Legend of Light, Chris Knight. Her work was accepted by Vogue Italia, she had gallery exhibitions put up in the city, and she was well on her way to creating a career without a degree but she was determined nonetheless.
The department head at Parsons accepted her proposal and Flor gained her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in photography in just two years. But because Flor is Argentinian and not an American citizen, she is constantly racing the clock. With every new program completed, she is awarded one more year in the states before she is deported. The level of stress added by this countdown would be enough to discourage anyone but Flor has said time and time again, she thrives in stressful situations and she has proven that correct multiple times.
Flor’s thesis project for Parsons was a photographic and video series about the male gaze, combined with her subconscious need to fill the male role in her life. Her series, titled Flaca Escopeta or Little Shotgun (an homage to her father’s nickname for her due to her skinny legs) uses black and white self portraits of her nude body, disfigured and cut into pieces; arms strewn across a couch, her torso mounted on a pedestal as if some statue to be viewed. The few pieces of her body still in tact, reaching towards an impossible source of light, surrounded by a purgatory-like room of all white.
‘I criticize patriarchal structures in Argentina. By creating images at the studio of chopped-off body parts and pairing them with ethereal still lives of different symbolisms, I represent how I felt disconnected from my body and sense of self, due to the objectifying male gaze of Latin American culture.’
When asked if she uses art as therapy, Flor responded in a way only someone who truly gave this idea a great deal of thought would.
‘I cannot make art without it being therapeutic. There will always be pain. There is no way of going through life without pain. Therapy has just given me the tools to not surrender to the pain.’
Flor doesn’t always know what an image means before it’s created. She dreams up some image in her head, some that seem impossible to recreate but after days of shooting, hours upon hours of photoshop and compositing, Flor gets to become her own audience, seeing the finished product for the first time and it’s only then that she really realizes what the image is about. She creates her images in order to better understand her own emotions. She really seems to be the definition of art through pain.
‘I’m very detached from my feelings.’
‘When I’m in pain, I find myself. Who the fuck says that?’
Flor has said time and time again that her father called her Flaca Escopeta (Little Shotgun) because of her skinny legs but, and I don’t want to speak for him at all, I think he saw something in her that she wouldn’t discover for years to come. He saw the fire inside her. She is a firecracker, a spark that pops and cracks and demands attention, one that refuses to be extinguished. Her father was the spark that ignited his little shotgun, starting the fuse to the reserve of gunpowder hidden inside her, waiting to explode at the right moment, and right now, Flor is exploding.
Florencia Villa
Flor now works as a professor at the very place she first studied, the New York Film Academy. Among teachers who shaped her into the photographer and artist she is today, she resides confidently alongside them, ready to encourage, push, and build the next generation of artists. She is now signed by Automatic Content, an Agency out of LA, and continues to freelance as a professional photographer, as all NYFA professors do. With a badass apartment in Williamsburg, an incredible portfolio, and endless burning energy, it’s safe to say that Flor is exactly where she needs to be, let alone where she deserves to be.
P.S. This was one of her last quotes of the interview regarding the ticking time bomb that is United States residency.
‘I’m also taking marriage applications.’