what is the power of a human face?
Faces are formidable and frightening, equally horrifying and mesmerizing. Any child's first memories, from the most distant past into our most unimaginable future, will involve a face. Yet, faces remain unknowable. Nothing else on Earth can be so familiar and mysterious, and peeling back the layers of an interesting face might be one of the purest assertions of humanity possible. Our brains perform the heavy lifting of being us, but the face translates thought to action. Through them we are able to share the strange and wonderful mind within.
Performers, but especially actors, know better than anyone what a face is capable of. The struggle most of us face is making our visage known to the world, a world that has no shortage of faces. It is the joy and duty of Akta to make climbing this mountain a little less daunting, to help make known faces that deserve to be seen. We understand the tension that exists between head and body, of who you are versus who you strive to be. The privilege of our work is to unite these disparate halves into the harmonious whole they were always meant to form. In every shoot, we strive to strip away the extraneous layers foisted upon actors by the performative nature of the work they do, and present only the most authentic self.
It is our mission to capture you with complete accuracy. Headshot photography is always an exercise in reduction, stripping away the planned and artificial. Our photographers find beauty in this simplicity, but we wish for you to move beyond being just a subject for them. Instead, we invite you to engage with yourself and become an active member of what is really a working partnership, a dialogue.
When you come to us, it is to work on discovering aspects of yourself that may not be obvious from a quick glance. So much of personal identity in our age is found within ambiguity and uncertainty, in questioning and dismantling barriers in pursuit of the true self. It is these grey areas that we are most interested in investigating with you. We challenge you to harness your imagination through us. After all, what are any of us doing here if not to annihilate the limits of what we believe is possible?
For all of the attention given to the physicality of acting, the vast majority of any audience’s attention will be fixed upon an actor’s face. As we perform, the face’s power ebbs and flows, breaking hearts, bringing great fortunes, laying empires at one’s feet. It can elevate the average to the extraordinary. With this dispatch, we aim to bring the extraordinary into our reality, to show off the fascinating faces we bring into our studio.
This story asks for, no, demands, your involvement. Our strength flows from the community we will forge together. We can’t wait to become a part of your journey, and you ours, as you set out to navigate this outlandish beast of an industry. We hope to see you at the studio one of these days, vibrant creatives on our own paths, but connected through our work, and through Akta.
Written by
Henry Nossitier | member #138
@hennynoss on Instagram