Femininity, Identity, Image

In the context of  Sherman’s iconic work and its social impact, Aphrodite Gonou, MCA Contemporary Art Program Advisor, discusses with Isabelle Kountoure (Style Director of Financial Times HTSI), Nassia Matsa (Model and Journalist) and Amina Moskof (Psychologist) how femininity is defined today, the factors that define our identity but also whether the identities we adopt are a social construct.

How are ideal images created and what is their impact on a collective and personal level? How do media and social media help promote and influence these images?

Isabelle Kountoure
Style Director of Financial Times HTSI

Greek-German by birth, Isabelle Kountoure splits her time between London and Paris. Currently Style Director of Financial Times HTSI, she is a fashion editor and image consultant with over 20 years of experience in the industry.

Having made a name for herself by breathing life into famed publications such as POP and Wallpaper, and contributed to Interview, Harper’s Bazaar US and Vogue Italia, she has also consulted luxury brands including Dior, Louis Vuitton, Cartier and Armani and is a committee member of the British Fashion Council. A visual storyteller at heart, Isabelle’s work is inspired by a wide range of cultural influences, and she has often merged the worlds of fashion, art and photography- artist collaborations include Marina Abramovic, Do Ho Suh, Katrien De Blauwer and Linder Sterling.

In terms of photography, she has worked with established greats such as Paolo Roversi, Vincent van De Wijngaard, Nathaniel Goldberg, Brigitte Niedermair and the late David Armstrong; equally, she has always enjoyed working and promoting the next generation, be it Harley Weir, Drew Vickers, or Marili Andre. Her unique fashion vision, often underpinned by a less-is-more ethos, and her considered, strategic approach to publishing, have been central to HTSI’s hugely successful transformation since 2020.

Nassia Matsa
Model and Journalist

Nassia Matsa is a London-based, Athens-born writer on culture and tech with published work in Financial Times, Wired and seven titles of Vogue. Also a model with campaigns for brands such as Prada, Balenciaga and Burberry as well as editorials for eight Vogue titles. She has received a nomination for Model of the Year for 2021 by Models.com along with Bella Hadid and Naomi Cambell.

Nassia has also collaborated with Mercedes-Benz to promote sustainable young designers. She was the first model to be shot at the Ancient Palace of Knossos in Crete under an Aegean & Greek Ministry of Culture partnership and has given a TEDx talk on the importance of failure in order to succeed.

With two Master’s degrees in media (from LSE and UAL), her creative skills are expanding across different outlets: from art direction for shoots for Dazed and Vogue Italia to radio producing for NTS Radio and hosting a Boiler Room event at her home town of Athens.

The latest project that she art directed, produced and modelled for was a horoscope-inspired calendar. The calendar mixed AI with fashion photography and was sold across US, Europe and Australia. Nassia’s viral article for Dazed has also advocated for AI ethics and regulation when it comes to fashion workers. She has also spoken at London College of Fashion on the subject matter and collaborated with Ivy League Cornell University on a study on the future of AI regulation and fashion.

Vogue US has also named her IG account @nassia_ as one of the best fashion accounts to follow three times.

Amina Moskof
Psychologist

Amina Moskof is a psychologist with a psychoanalytic orientation. She has worked in both England and Greece, with thirty years of clinical experience. Alongside her role as a psychotherapist, since 2015 she has also worked as a trainer and supervisor in camps for refugees and migrants.

Her special interests include the dialectic between internal and external reality (such as in the case of refugee trauma), as well as developments in psychoanalytic technique, which is now informed by feminist theories.