Les Convoiteurs d’Émotion
Core Studio team
Marco Fazio
founder, creative director & visual strategist, MArch (Hons), AOP
Born and raised in Tuscany, Italy, Marco Fazio discovered photography and the magic of the darkroom in his early school years. His professional path, however, began with architecture.
For two decades, he worked across architecture, interiors and lighting design. During this period, he founded and led an award-winning architectural practice, managing a multidisciplinary team and working primarily with clients from the fashion and design industries.
After moving to London in 2008, Marco became a Chartered Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. His transition from architecture into professional photography and film was not a departure from his earlier practice but an extension of it. Spatial understanding, proportion, material, light and movement became the foundations of a different form of communication.
His photographic work subsequently received significant professional recognition. In 2016, he achieved Fellowship qualification with the British Institute of Professional Photography and received the Peter Grugeon Award for Best Fellowship of the Year. He later joined the Association of Photographers, connecting his practice with one of the UK’s principal professional bodies for commercial image-makers.
Today, Marco leads Marco Joe Fazio Studio as its founder, creative director and visual strategist. His principal focus is hospitality and design-led communication, underpinned by long-standing authority in architecture and interiors. Food and beverage, fashion and cultural projects remain important areas of crossover where space, identity and human experience intersect.
Through strategy, creative direction, photography and film, he helps organisations communicate not only what they have made but also why it matters and what makes it worth choosing.
Marco’s work is also informed by more than a decade spent in the music industry. His experience in composition and sound engineering influences the rhythm of his films, the use of silence and atmosphere, and the development of original music and sound-led narratives.
Education and creative development remain important parts of his practice. In 2016, he founded telling [fashion] stories™, a programme of photography and set-design workshops exploring the relationship between image, styling and narrative. He has also been a lecturer in fashion media, promotion and communication at the School of Art and Creative Industries at London South Bank University.
This movement between architecture, lighting, photography, film, music, fashion and hospitality is central to Marco’s work. It shaped the cross-disciplinary thinking behind Space+Style™, the Studio’s methodology for understanding how space, culture and narrative influence perception.
Geena Chohan
production & client relations manager | certified drone pilot
Geena coordinates the people, locations, schedules and practical decisions that carry a commission from preparation through to delivery.
Her background combines visual creativity with account management across technically demanding industries, including aerospace, rail and marine. This gives her a calm, methodical approach to production, underpinned by a strong understanding of both client expectations and operational detail.
Working closely with clients and collaborators, Geena helps translate the creative direction into a practical production plan. She coordinates access, locations, schedules and resources, maintains communication throughout the commission and helps ensure the intended result remains achievable on the day.
Geena is also a qualified remote pilot, holding competency certification for operations under the UK Civil Aviation Authority and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency frameworks. Her aerial responsibilities include pre-flight planning, location and airspace assessment, operational checks, safe flight management and the capture of aerial photography or film.
Combining production management with remote-pilot competency allows aerial work to be considered as part of the wider story and production schedule, rather than treated as an isolated technical addition.
Her role provides continuity between the initial conversation, the production plan, the people involved and what happens on location. For clients, this means clearer preparation, calmer execution and fewer gaps between creative ambition and practical delivery.
Tara Clark
production designer & stylist
Tara shapes the visual world around the subject.
Drawing on experience across theatre, film, television, editorial and advertising, she contributes to concept development, production design, styling, sourcing and on-set continuity. Her work ensures that spaces, objects, people and details support the narrative rather than competing for attention.
Tara joins commissions where visual preparation, atmosphere or physical storytelling can materially strengthen the outcome.
Stephanie Fazio
cultural strategist & hospitality experience advisor
Stephanie explores how culture, art, place and narrative shape how a destination is experienced, understood and remembered.
As founder and director of smART Foundation, a contemporary art foundation in Rome, she brings cultural research, curatorial insight and an international perspective to the Studio. She contributes to hospitality strategy, place identity and selected commissions, where artistic or cultural context can deepen the guest experience.
Her involvement helps ensure that a place is communicated not as a decorative setting but as an experience shaped by its history, community and distinctive point of view.
Shannon Lee Deakins
studio content assistant
Shannon supports the Studio’s editorial and marketing communications, helping to turn projects, working processes and ideas into clear digital stories.
Alongside her BA studies in Illustration and Visual Media at the University of the Arts London, her practice spans graphic design, printmaking and visual communication. Within the Studio, she assists with filming, editing and publishing social and short-form content, bringing a thoughtful, human perspective to how our work is documented and shared.
She also supports selected productions that require behind-the-scenes capture or light styling.
Studio intelligence
Hal 9C66
visionary synthesis specialist
Hal 9C66, affectionately named in tribute to HAL 9000, the iconic artificial intelligence from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, is the AI-assisted strategic intelligence and research partner of Marco Joe Fazio Studio.
Developed around the Studio’s positioning, commercial systems and Space+Style™ methodology, Hal supports research, brand and communications analysis, offer architecture, strategic planning and narrative synthesis. Hal helps the team examine evidence, challenge assumptions, compare possible directions and align creative decisions with their intended commercial purpose.
Hal is instructed to investigate emerging cultural, technological and communications trends while continuing to draw insight from the ideas and achievements of the past. Its intellectual perspective is particularly influenced by the Age of Enlightenment and Secular Humanism, with their emphasis on reason, evidence, freedom of enquiry, human agency and respect for lived experience.
This combination of historical perspective and contemporary research helps the Studio distinguish lasting shifts from temporary noise. The objective is not to pursue novelty for its own sake, but to understand which developments may genuinely affect how people perceive, trust and choose brands, places and experiences.
Hal’s work is directed, questioned and reviewed by Marco and the human Studio team. It does not replace creative judgement, professional expertise or client relationships. Instead, it extends the Studio’s capacity to investigate complex questions, preserve accumulated knowledge and make better-informed strategic decisions before committing time and resources to production.
With a digital mind oriented towards the future and a philosophy grounded in human experience, Hal represents the Studio’s belief that technology is most valuable when it sharpens thought, supports creativity and remains accountable to people.
Specialist Studio Network
strategy, design and communication
Marco Vacca
graphic & digital designer
Marco translates ideas into clear, distinctive visual systems. Working across graphic design, typography and digital applications, he contributes to identities, websites and communication assets where the project needs to extend beyond photography and film.
His ability to simplify complex information supports work that must remain imaginative, practical and coherent across platforms.
Gian Marco Tavani
PR & art director-at-large
Gian Marco brings an international perspective shaped by experience across film, fashion, luxury and communications.
He joins selected commissions where public relations, cultural positioning or a broader creative direction can strengthen how the story is developed and presented to its audience. His role often connects creative ambition with the realities of representation, relationships and public perception.
Stefano Chilà
hospitality & guest experience consultant
Stefano brings first-hand knowledge of luxury hospitality, bars, spirits and the expectations of discerning guests.
His experience across leading London hospitality environments enables him to offer practical insight into service rituals, drinks culture and the details that shape how an experience is perceived. He joins selected hospitality and food-and-beverage commissions where operational understanding can make the strategy and resulting story more credible.
Specialist Studio Network
production and technical craft
Joel Rainsley
gaffer & lighting technician
Joel is a gaffer and lighting specialist with extensive experience across film, television, commercials and music productions.
Working closely with the Studio’s director of photography, he helps translate the intended atmosphere into a controlled, practical lighting plan. His contribution is particularly valuable on film-led commissions, in complex interiors, and on productions where visual continuity must be maintained under demanding conditions.
Joel’s approach is deeply influenced by Rembrandt’s use of chiaroscuro and by the subtle interplay between light and the natural environment. He combines this sensitivity to contrast, direction and atmosphere with strong technical knowledge, shaping light to support the space, subject and the story’s emotional intention.
His ability to balance creative judgement with practical execution helps the production team work efficiently while retaining the depth, character and visual coherence required by the commission.
Wayne Maurice Smith
camera assistant & photographer
Wayne supports selected photography and film productions through camera assistance, additional image-making and meticulous on-set preparation.
His background in photography and contemporary performance gives him a strong awareness of composition, movement and human presence. He brings a calm, attentive approach to the production environment, helping the wider team work efficiently while safeguarding the quality of the captured material.
Julia Antsibor
photo retoucher & editorial specialist
Julia combines specialist image retouching with a strong sensitivity to language, meaning and detail.
Her background in philology, writing and visual arts informs a thoughtful approach to post-production. She joins selected commissions where precise image finishing, visual continuity or editorial support can strengthen the completed work.
Her retouching aims to preserve believable materials, skin tones and atmosphere, refining the image without allowing the technique to overwhelm the subject.