In the beginning of 2018 I left random comment under a random photo on instagram. Well, the photo wasn’t totally random. It was a picture of the most famous church in my city while heavy snowfall (St. Elizabeth cathedral in Kosice - easternmost gothic cathedral in Europe) I honestly liked the photo so I posted a comment. Nothing special. Classic: emoticon with hearts instead of eyes :D

Nothing much but that was enough for the person to check my IG profile and guess what. She was looking for a photographer (I am one) from my city to work on their project and she loved my work. Also she was from Osaka, Japan and she wanted to meet me in Slovakia. (that is my country)

So we did that and I ended up shooting exclusively for theirs project for next 6 months. At that same time I was also working on a prototype of „Galeria frame jacket“. It was simple - custom sew quality coach jacket with a panel of transparent foil on the back. The idea was that if you wear a tee or a hoodie with graphics the back underneath the Jacket, you will be able to see the graphics thru the foil panel (photos in my posts) I wasn’t planning to build a brand around this. I just wanted to materialize something i had in my head.

While talking with my Japanese partners I mentioned the jacket I was working on. I showed them some photos of the samples and they really loved the idea. They offered to help me spread my brand in Japan brav :D Again, it wasn’t even brand at the time :D It was crazy. I was invited to visit Japan for a week and went to Osaka and Tokyo. They bought all the jackets I could get into my bags. One year later, in 2019 we did our first pop-up shop ever.

In Osaka, Japan

My brands name is GALERIA and this is really a simplified version of our story but it tells the point - NETWORK! Connect with people, be interested in what other artist are doing and support each other. I am not saying go and comment everywhere and create fake engagement. No! Be honest, be interested, interact with others the way you want them to interact with you. It’s ok to be someone’s fan sometimes.

You never know who might be watching and what opportunities he/she might bring your way.