For this special project, we talk to 12 creatives and designers aged 19 to 87 about their experiences in the creative industry, their hopes and dreams, the changes they have witnessed during their career so far, and what further developments they hope may come in the future. Here we talk to photographer Tami Aftab, aged 23

At 23, London-based photographer Tami Aftab already has a list of clients and commissions from the likes of T Magazine, Refinery29, FT Weekend, WePresent, and Amazon Music. Her work is intimate and personal, often exploring familial relationships, but there’s also a playfulness to her photography that invites the viewer in and puts them at ease.

Aftab was surrounded by creativity from an early age, with the women in her family, who mostly all work as social workers, having a passion for art and painting in their spare time. Her childhood home still has her mother’s paintings on the walls. “I think my parents’ generation would be artists if they could have been in their time,” she tells CR. “But I think because our generation perhaps has more access or freedom to becoming artists full time, that’s where it really kicked off for me.”