Maleia Bisera, Californian Photographer and Musician

Maleia Bisera is a 22-year-old singer-songwriter and photographer based out of San Diego, California. Now graduated from university, she is striving towards a creative career in photography as she continues to dabble in music, eventually to release an EP. Bisera categorizes her creative passions in two distinct compartments. Her music comes from a more personal realm and she pulls inspiration from singers such as Halsey and Banks. On the other hand, her photography is more conceptual with inspiration from every element of her life.

Bisera is a co-founder of the photography feature page on Instagram, Hype Crew Portraits, and runs two of her own photography accounts. Her focus is largely portraiture and concept art but after a conversation with her, it’s clear that her interests spread much further.

Her music is produced and mastered with the help of her friend, Alex France. Before her first single in 2018, Bisera reached out to him with a song idea and the two of them have worked together since then. France has a musical career of his own and his solo work can also be found on Spotify. Soul Talk chatted with Bisera about her relationship with the Instagram photography community and her creative inspirations.

Laura Blanchette: Between film and digital photography, is there a medium that you're more drawn to?

Bisera: Recently, I am enjoying film a lot more. The process of taking it and then not knowing if the shot ended up alright, and then waiting for them to be developed. It's kind of like opening a present when you get your film back.

LB: I also saw that you have separate accounts for your film and digital photography, why did you decide to separate it?

B: Basically, film was becoming more of my everyday shots and landscapes which I wanted to keep separate from my digital, which is mainly portraits, graduation photos, and more things with people in it. I'd like to continue doing portrait shoots on film as well, but when I was starting it, I did more landscapes.

I think it's also nice to showcase film completely separate from digital so people can tell what they're looking at. Sometimes people nowadays will take a digital photo and make it look like it's a film photo.

LB: Can you tell me about Hype Crew Portraits?

B: There's four of us who run the account. It's basically just a feature page. So anybody can submit to the account, just use #hypecrewportraits and we'll look through the hashtag and pick the artists to feature. There's three of us who live in the US, and one photographer in Ireland. I have shot before with the boy who lives in Ireland and we connected there when I was traveling abroad and we thought, 'Hey, let's connect our two different photography groups and people around the world through a feature page where we can feature different artists and different voices.'

LB: How have you found the community on Instagram?

B: I really like it. And I've been able to connect with artists all around the world. The creative community on Instagram has really been wonderful because there's so much connection through the app and I have had multiple meetups because of it and connected with other artists in my area. I've also made a couple friends through it, like I was saying, the boy who I shot with in Ireland. We first met off of Instagram, we were in an artist chat where people would send photos and ask for feedback.

LB: So I see that you were doing virtual photoshoots, how is that?

B: I started that during the pandemic, because I figured when we're not allowed to be seeing anybody and I think a great way to connect people around the world is to be able to connect through social media and, in my case, virtual photography. So I started with one of my friends here in San Diego and we thought it worked really well. And I said, Hey, like why not extend it? I've shot with a couple other models and I'm hoping to expand that even after quarantine ends. You can still connect with people all around the world, which I think is really important.

Basically for a FaceTime photoshoot, I'll have the model pick a color scheme and we'll work on an outfit together. I usually go for neutral colors, because that's the palette I like to shoot in. But of course, whatever the model has and is comfortable with. Having both ideas makes for a better shoot. Then we'll pick an outfit and time. It's definitely hard with time zones. I had a shoot originally with someone who's in Australia but it fell through because of the time zones but we'll reconvene at a later date when our schedules are more in line. Obviously, getting more people from around the world would be amazing. You just have to pick a time and date and it's kind of up to the model to try to find someone to help if they can. I've had people who have someone else hold the phone and then I'll just direct them. It's just chatting and using simple directions and from there, it's easy enough to clean up the photos.

LB: Could you explain concept art a bit?

B: Basically concept photography has a storyline or something, like a feeling, that you're basing your whole photo series or photo off of. The difference between these photos and, say, graduation photos, is that you want to tell a story.

I started with concept art when I was about 15. There's an artist on Instagram (@brittneypanda). She was one of the first artists that I followed when I was young and I fell in love with her. It seems like there's a lot of feeling to her photos. Originally that's what I was chasing in my photography. I started adventuring to abandoned places and just shooting with my friends. Lots of haunting photos and super dark feelings.

I ended up moving away from that for a while and just doing portraits and grad photos for a while, because, well, that's what pays the bills.

LB: What do you think makes a good photographer?...it’s a pretty heavy question *laughs*

B: Yeah, pretty heavy. Well, I think it depends on who you’re asking. Some people would say a good photographer follows composition rules and know good color grading, while others would say it’s all about the feeling and the message. I fall more on the side in which, to me, a good photographer is someone who can make you feel something with an image.

LB: Can you tell me about your inspirations?

B: For music, mostly personal experience as well as talking with people I’m close to and their experiences. For photography, inspiration comes from the Instagram community, art shows, paintings, films and just everyday life. Any sort of feeling or emotion that’s overwhelming.

Regarding films, the Dead Poet’ Society has always inspired me. It’s just iconic. I’ve finished watching the Handmaid’s Tale, which is so dark, but so thought provoking. The way they’re color graded the film is such a photography inspiration. How they set tone and mood with just the color is incredible.

LB: How do you think you would describe yourself and your art to someone you just met?

B: Ooh another big one.

LB: Yeah. *laughs*

B: I guess my music and photography are two different things. In my photography, I’d say that I aim to capture feelings from the people I’m working with and I generally aim for warmer tones in my photos. Then for music, I’d probably describe it as, oh dear, definitely from the heart. All my music is very personal. Said with a lot of heart and a lot of feeling.

Follow Maleia Bisera on Instagram

Film Account: https://www.instagram.com/m.b.film/?hl=en

Digital Account: https://www.instagram.com/maleiabisera/?hl=en

Hype Crew Photography: https://www.instagram.com/hypecrewportraits/?hl=en

Check out Maleia Bisera on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1P3DnoMGwqMDhW6Bq6erNA?si=sgaKIsQnRw2ITBTAs-y3UQ

Check out Alex France on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5YcrK5BMFGWuXku9nepAIt?si=eAlPoUEfRCyNEpJzFT8dOQ