About me
After spending the entire morning working with 🤍 AMANDA https://www.amandaakokhia.com/, https://www.instagram.com/amandaakokhiaphotography/, an extraordinary creative director and photographer working at the highest level of beauty and fashion, preparing a photographic story for our 10-year anniversary in 2027, I found myself thinking about something.
We could have taken the easy route. We could have entered a few instructions into an AI machine, pressed a button, and within minutes produced an absolutely beautiful image of me. I have no doubt it would have been perfect. Every detail, every angle, every part of me. A picture-perfect image.
But where would the journey have been?
Personally, I want to continue working with creative human beings. People who imagine, who draw storyboards by hand, who scribble out mistakes, who question, discuss, disagree, correct, rethink and change their minds. People who physically create something together. I love the process of being on a photographic set, outdoors, in the elements, working with the landscape, the weather and the terrain. The very same terrain that produces my Champagne. The extraordinary vineyards, the grapes, the earth and the elements that give Champagne its character.
There is something deeply meaningful about creating beauty in the real world. Someone carrying a ladder. Someone adjusting a dress. A conversation about the light. A sudden change of direction. A mistake that becomes a wonderful discovery.
All those little moments that might seem insignificant are, in fact, everything.
They are what make us curious. They challenge us. They teach us patience, collaboration, imagination and the joy of discovering something we hadn’t planned. That is how we grow as human beings.
Now, let me make something absolutely clear. I am NOT against technology, and I am certainly not against AI. I work with AI every single day. I use it to support the administrative side of my life, to organise things, to correct my grammar, to help with the practical tasks that take up so much of our time. But I do not use it to write my stories. My stories come from my experiences, my observations, my emotions, my mistakes, my memories and my imagination.
AI can correct my grammar, but it cannot replace my voice. And I will always need my own voice in everything I write to remain true and authentic to all those that follow my champagne journey .
The same applies to technology in the Champagne industry. Technology and Champagne have been working together for years. Robotics, machinery and innovation have made an enormous difference to the physical demands of our work.
And thank goodness for that!
I have absolutely no intention of continuing to break my back lifting 40-kilo grape cases, moving heavy bottles or struggling with barrels when a machine can do that work for me.
Why should I?
If technology can protect our bodies, improve our working conditions, make production more efficient and take away unnecessary physical strain, then I am all for it. I welcome it with open arms. But there is a difference between using technology to support human beings and using technology to replace the human experience.
That, for me, is where the conversation becomes interesting.
I want machines to help us with the heavy lifting, the repetitive work, the administration and the things that make our lives unnecessarily difficult. But I don’t want to hand over my imagination, my creativity, my curiosity or my personal expression. I don’t want to lose the discussions, the disagreements, the unexpected discoveries, the laughter, the frustrations and the wonderful accidents that happen when creative people work together. And now after the photoshoot I get to thank Amanda and the team, being able to give thanks to another person is just great!
Look at the picture and feel the heartbeat , it’s handmade and it’s with love.
Photography: âś…@amandaakokhiaphotography
Makeup: @josephined.makeupartist
Hair Stylist: @riccaaxo
