Kai Clews

Kai Clews is an emerging portrait photographer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Specialising in striking studio-lit portraits, Kai works primarily with digital photography methods as it compliments his extremely fast-paced and efficient workflow - Kai shoots fast and edits faster.

Currently freelancing, Kai has turned his apartment living room into a run-and-gun studio space that he works out of to deliver stunning portraits to his clients. With a background in excellent customer-service and hospitality, Kai is adept at making models comfortable in front of a camera and bringing out the best from his clients. Only 10% of Kai’s work is setting up the lights and camera, and the other 90% of his workflow is engaging and interacting with the model during a photoshoot.

Kai’s body of work is heavily influenced by photographers such as Annie Leibovitz, Peter Coulson, and Alex Webb, as well as the street photography scene of New York City. His work primarily features off-camera flash-photography showcasing strong contrasty images with rich blacks and bold uses of colour.

Kai’s work has been featured in exhibitions and galleries around the world - currently his series ‘Supernature’ is included in the Urban Photo Awards exhibition in Trieste, Italy.

Kai Clews intends to grow and work full-time as a commercial portrait photographer specialising in headshots and modelling portfolios and eventually upgrading out of his dinky apartment ‘studio.’

Cameron

Freelance portrait work for client Cameron Grant

Christina

Freelance portrait work for client Christina Hatzis

Cameron II

Freelance portrait work for client Cameron Grant

Supernature

Image from Kai's series 'Supernature' currently featured in the Urban Photo Awards in Trieste, Italy

Apo's House

Image from Kai's capstone series 'Apo's House' - a portrait of his 87-year-old grandpa and his house

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.