Zilla van den Born
Retoucher and digital creative, active in the field of postproduction.
My fascination with Photoshop was born when I started modelling at the age of 16. I watched a photographer edit my body, which was really confronting. On the other hand, I was also intrigued by the possibilities and started experimenting myself.
Transforming photos from ‘good’ into ‘better and best’ to help clients tell engaging visual stories that stand out.
Nowadays I am Art Academy trained in Graphic Design and committed to create pixel perfection in visual storytelling. To me, the creative process does not stop after a photo is captured – it has only just begun. It excites me that I can enable brands, agencies and artists to enter into a world in which the impossible becomes possible. Together we can turn wild ideas into lively visual campaigns.
Virals travel fast. I got caught up in one after dedicating my graduation project to digital manipulation and managed to shake up the internet.
This gave me the opportunity to spread my message about distorted realities and fake social media representations to a wide audience.
I am in conflict between being a big fan of working the photoshop magic as a retoucher and on the other hand making people more aware about the risks this editing software brings along. It fascinates me how I am able to create unworldly beautiful scenes and people. But it also worries me that these filtered and edited photos can change our perception of the world or even damage one’s self esteem. In my opinion, retouching is not something that should be done secretly: it needs to be discussed and treated openly and honestly.
Need a speaker? Let’s delve into the topic of unrealistic expectations and images.
Notable Accomplishments
– Guest of Dutch talkshow ‘RTL Late Night’
– Official Selection of Documentary Festival IDFA
– Speaker at IDFA Doclab
– Selected as one of ‘Die 10’ for RTL Germany
– Special Guest on Belgian tv-show ‘Normale Mensen’
– Speaker at Pecha Kucha Amsterdam
– Guest on German tv show ‘YOLO’
– Nominated for Generation Glamour
– Guest on Australian talkshow ‘Sunrise’
– Guest on American talkshow ‘RightThisMinute’
Published in
– the New York Times
– Daily Mail
– de Volkskrant
– der Spiegel
– New York Post
– Metro UK
– het Parool
– the Washington Post
– die Bild Zeitung
Featured on
– Newsmonkey
– Odditycentral
– Bustle
– l’Obs
– ABC7 NY
– the Independent
– Gapyear
– Linda nieuws
– Buzzfeed
– Kickasstrips
– HLN
– Ettoday
– Schweizer Illustrierte
– Info Resist
– Petapixel
– Luxemburger Wort
– ABC6
– the Daily Telegraph
– Boston Globe
– Tubantia
– CNN Turk
– the Guardian
– 1TV Russia
– Malaysian Digest
– Stern
– Express
– Layar
– AD
– Tecmundo
– NY post
– Oh I see
– El diario
– Telecinco
– Dazed
– Yahoo
– ХочУ
– Fatos
– Tv2 dk
– Viajes
– Biobio Chile
– Side3
– Herald Sun
– Some others..