In the world of fashion advertising, it can be difficult to step away. Photographers hoping to land campaigns or meaningful editorials have to sacrifice square meters and sanity, confined — for the most part — to the big-name cities of New York, Paris, or London. Photographer Anna Victoria Best was no exception. She moved to London early in her career to cut her teeth with the myriad brands and magazines stitching the city into a fabric of quintessential English cool.

Best is not like other photographers, however. She diverged from her peers in a very meaningful way in 2021, when she and her partner decided to leave the bustling streets of London and relocate to Northumberland. Amongst the rolling hills and dense woods surrounding her farmhouse, Best explored a new version of her practice; one that emphasised silence and stillness over urban pressures.

Her meditative and intuitive approach to photography has become the foundation of a book and exhibition with stylist and muse Lara McGrath, titled Keka Rocka. On the occasion of the launch of the book and accompanying exhibition, Anna and I connected over the phone. The sound of rustling paper and furniture moving in the background scored our discussion of her projects and purpose, as she set up for the opening that same evening. Read our conversation, below.

What inspired you to pick up the camera? Did you come from an artistic family?

I'm not from an artistic family on paper, but if members of my family had been born in a different time, they would have been artists. Especially my dad, who actually helped me with the metal work for this exhibition. He was always making things. I was brought up on a farm, in a very free-spirited environment. I’ve always had a vast space to be creative and imagine, and loved imaginary play when I was a kid.

How did that translate into starting photography?

When I left school, I knew I didn’t want to do my A-levels. I wanted to go to college. There was an open day and I saw a photography course, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, that looks fun, I’ll do that!’ I had such a normal upbringing; we didn’t have art in the house, we didn’t have many art books, so I wasn’t particularly exposed to, say, fashion imagery. When I first found it, I was around sixteen or seventeen. I had no preconception of what beauty was, so my experimentation came from my own intuition. I didn’t have anyone telling me what I should take pictures of. I didn’t realise how inspired by photography I already was. 

When you moved to London, were you developing your own photographic language?

Yes, definitely. I was exposed to meeting new people with stories that I'd never heard before, and from all across the world. Seeing how they dressed or carried themselves, or how they communicated… I got very interested in people’s self-expression. I just fell into fashion photography in that way, by documenting people stripped back and real. I wanted to find their confidence and somehow express that in images.

You relocated from London to Northumberland in 2021. What did this move mean to you?

It meant taking a big step back from photography. I needed to rediscover it. I’d go on these big hikes around the local area and just explore nature again. I’d take a little point-and-shoot camera with me. It felt so different from my life in London, but so similar to my upbringing. I needed to see it in pictures to process it.

How did your collaboration with Lara McGrath begin?

We met within the industry. She’s also from up north, so we just connected. Lara and I had always spoken about shooting together. It seemed right because she is so expressive through her clothes and her styling. I knew that she would fully understand what I was trying to do. I asked her if she would come to the farmhouse to work on a shoot together. There were no limitations on what it was going to be.

You completed three of these shoots together, each over three days. That’s quite significant for a personal project. What was it like?

I love to work with a bit of space and process and sit on the images. In the industry, when do you really get a chance to do that? Everything's so fast-paced, I wanted to give this project the space that it needed, and to fully understand why I want to do the project. I wanted to understand myself and why I think I should be taking photographs. It’s a process of unlearning what a commercial photographer is; I needed to find myself again and give myself space to go a bit incognito.

That brings us to the name. What is the story behind ‘Keka Rocka’?

It's Romani Gypsy slang that means ‘be quiet’. To be quiet about who you are, and remain private about your identity. 

You also became a mother during this project. Has motherhood deepened your practice?

It definitely has, and especially with this project. The first shoot we worked on, I wasn’t pregnant. By the second one, I had just become a mother – about two months prior – so I was very postpartum. It has softened me. I have always thought I needed to be very tough in my work. But I need to show the softer side. Lara has also taught me a lot – she is so confident in her own skin, she’s like, ‘Let's just do it. I’ll wrap this shawl around me and we’ll go naked.’ She’s taught me to be more comfortable with myself as well. Especially being a mother, your body changes.

You’ve mentioned to me in the past that you were inspired by Clarice Lispector’s notion of stillness and connection.

I read Agua Viva while I was living in Berlin for a few months. She wrote that she writes in order to feel the true measure of silence. It clicked to me because, as a photographer, I was always asking myself why my images matter, but it only matters if it matters to me. When I saw Lara in the landscape, it made me feel the true measure of silence because I was seeing her in this landscape through her eyes, and I was connected to it.

You have mounted the photographs on metal structures during the book launch exhibition. What drove that choice?

The images are so earthy, and the tones are so natural and warm that it makes you feel like you’re almost there, yet the feeling of the metal is repulsive when you imagine how it tastes in your mouth. I wanted the images to soften the metal, or for the two to balance each other out.

What was the process like of selecting and turning this vast documentation into a  binder format book?

I needed to enlist the help of art director Louis Gabriel. What Louis has done — I’ve not seen anyone do anything similar. A lot of the images are very big and full-bleed to the page. But we've also played with repetition. The start of the book has four images from the same shot. And I think that’s storytelling. You don't really get to do that in editorials if you're shooting for a publication. Emanuela Gherasim worked on the graphics; she really brought the text to life.

Where are you thinking of taking your practice next?

I do have another project that I'm working on at the moment, with a dancer. And now that my daughter's a bit older and I'm able to travel more, I feel like I've got a few bits of myself back. I don't think many people talk about how much motherhood takes it out of you. And you lose a bit of your identity. But I do really feel back in the room. This project made me learn so much about myself and my practice. It’s been really important for me.

Anna Victoria Best’s photo book Keka Rocka is available here.