Fans of Danny Sangra’s work will be interested in a new direction he’s been taking recently. Sangra initially made his name creating intricate and iconoclastic illustrations, collages and murals, which developed into film and video work for fashion and music collaborators and even some rather natty knitwear design. Sangra has worked with clients including Chloe, Harrods, Miu Miu and SHOWstudio and is now focused on pushing his film work in a new direction, challenging the conventional uses of the medium.

His latest project is a series of video portraits, and he is typically candid about how the idea came about: “It all started because I find music videos annoying to make,” says Sangra. “They all start with good intentions but then slowly get picked apart by everyone involved. So I thought ‘why do musicians always get to have a video to make them look cool?’ I started rounding up friends who I find interesting—writers, set designers, illustrators. The video portraits are a way for me to experiment and make film in my personal way”.

So far, Sangra has released two video portraits—the first on singer and writer Kev Soar and the latest on set designer and prop stylist Sarianne Plaisant. Both are atmospheric and cinematic, lingering poetically over the physicality of the subjects, while visually and aurally gesturing towards their characters and demeanors. It’s a clever and creative take on the portrait format.

“Story telling with film and photography is what is exciting me right now,” says Sangra, who is also currently putting the finishing touches to a short film called The Cereal Box kid, about a boy and his home-made camera. Watch this space to see the finished result soon.