Art
No Order Magazine talks with the artist.
My name is Mayatu Nova. I am a multidisciplinary creative - it’s a term I’ve come to use because I feel like I do a lot of things. Technically I do radio and modelling. I have done some acting but I wouldn’t call myself an actor. This leads me into what I do with Nova Archives - I wouldn’t call myself a photographer and I think this is the first time I have been recognised in this way. I guess through ballroom, I am recognised more as an archivist. I also am the co-founder of Spinning Wildfire and Grit.
Do you have a set process when it comes to making work and what is a part of that process that people may find surprising?
I think people will be surprised but not gagged at the fact that I don’t edit any of the images I take. They’re RAW files. I don’t even run them through a filter. I’ve tried editing a few images in the past but I just don’t like altering it. I feel like it takes away from what I’m actually doing and that’s documenting the innate experience of life. All I have is a digital camera. I show up, I click, I go home and that’s that. I’ll go through the photos and post them or send them off in a Google drive to the organisers of the event. That’s it.
How did you get into shooting ballroom?
There's multiple reasons why I archive actually, it is because I have no memory up here and my phone only has so many gigs. I have to delete shit all the time and it hurts me. I'd rather post it than have no record of it. I had a conversation one time with Joshua Alexander, the father of the House of Alexander…I was at Neesha Alexander's and she had another roommate’s going away party. They were all moving and shit - it was the end of an era. I was speaking to Josh and he was saying that “you need to take this seriously.” And I was like “what the fuck are you talking about?” He basically said that you go through so many different aspects of the community, and if we don’t archive it, we won’t have anything to show for it. I feel like he gave me a blessing in a way to shoot ballroom. I think also what would have started it was because I ended up being the in-house photographer for Warehouse 25 for the events that they were doing because I was already kind of there at said events.
Image courtesy of the artist.
What advice do you have for emerging artists?
I know it's dumb because I said it earlier, I know I've said this before, but I truly think anything is possible. And it's funny because when it comes to something that I do, I never believe in that rule. I literally will put a note on my Instagram that says, “believe in yourself as you do for others,” because I feel like I'm always like telling my friends “you're going to be like a fucking Oscar winner.” But at the same time I feel like with emerging artists it's like literally anything you do is possible and anything you do is profitable, but don't feel compelled to do both. I think sometimes we feel like we have to paint so we can make money off the painting. You can just paint. If it makes you money, then that's great. You genuinely don't know where it will take you.
And I know that this is super corny, but honestly just be real.
Read the full interview in Issue 04
Published: 18th July 2025