Gabriel Moses Discusses Family, Football and Virgil Abloh at V&A East Talk

Filmmaker, director and photographer Gabriel Moses appeared at V&A East Museum for 'A Life in the Work of Others', a talk series in which artists discuss the people, places and experiences shaping their practice. Moses traced his visual language to the women in his family: his sister, a fashion student who pinned torn pages from Vogue and Dazed to her bedroom walls, and his mother, whose flower arranging and bold approach to colour still inform how he composes an image. Family photographs of his grandparents and mother in Nigeria, and of his siblings as children, made documentation a familiar activity. His mother, who arrived in the UK at 18, backed his decision to leave university after his first Nike film, followed by five quiet months. Moses recalled south London figures including Rio Ferdinand and Andy Ansah, the former footballer turned ads choreographer who cast local kids as extras. Early videos about Fikayo Tomori, made in six hours, and Joe Gomez led to Nike commissioning Tiempo boot ads when he was 18. Through photographer Fabien Montique he met Virgil Abloh at the Off-White studio, shooting fitting photos and show films. Moses described Abloh's humility and same-day replies as formative. He cited everyday people's creativity as his core subject and urged young creatives to be themselves, noting he writes down one concept daily because 'your ideas are your currency.'