Today we’d like to introduce you to Afolabi Mosuro and Ambika Varghese.
Afolabi and Ambika, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We both went to Baylor University, where Ambika was a photojournalist for the school newspaper and Afolabi started taking portraits of many of his friends. At that time, we had a few friends in common and knew each other casually. We had shot a friends’ graduation photos together and were learning techniques from each other. After graduating, Ambika moved to New York and Afolabi moved to Houston, where we both started working and we’re not shooting regularly. We reconnected a few years later once Ambika moved back to Houston and decided to start shooting together, just for fun. We enjoyed it so much, we bought some studio equipment to experiment with, and before we knew it, we were discussing names for a photography business. CLIQUE was born. Since then, we have expanded the breadth of our work and solidified the pillars of our organization – creativity, connection and community. Each of our projects, from IMPERFECT (link) to Racism without Racists (link) is about fostering creativity, making connections and building community.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There have certainly been ups and downs. In addition to CLIQUE, we both work full-time jobs, so balancing that can be challenging. Maintaining creative momentum has taken the time and driving new business is something we are working on. This business started out of a passion for our art and a village of supportive friends and family, so we are catching up to the business side of things, but we have learned a lot and feel more prepared than before.
CLIQUE – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a creative production house specializing in visual storytelling, portrait and lifestyle photography and video production. We aspire to create content that will spark discussion, collaboration and a sense of community rather than polarized debate and radical hate. We hope that our work fosters the life and connection that we all crave. We have worked on a variety of projects – everything from family portraits for Houston families who lost their homes due to Hurricane Harvey to fashion shows and music videos; working together, having a diverse community of friends and collaborating with other creatives has allowed us to explore different types of work without losing sight of our purpose.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Our success is defined by our relationships to others. Are we making people think? Are we making people happy?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.createdbyclique.com/
- Email: hello@createdbyclique.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/createdbyclique/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/createdbyclique/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/createdbyclique
Image Credit:
Afolabi Mosuro and Ambika Kashi Varghese
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