Seen from the vantage point of fans and stalkers, the book is peppered with letters, conversations, and diary entries, alongside images of performances and promotional shoots. With an aesthetic of glittery eyeshadow, camisoles, bows, glossy lips, DVDs and corkboard collages, it crystallises Collins\u2019 signature early 2000s style, evoking The Virgin Suicides, The Idol\u00a0and Girls5eva (sans raunchy jokes). It\u2019s less about the music industry than the clout and craze of fame, an allegory about the throwaway nature of pop cultural figures.<\/p>\n
While she herself has never been a musician \u2013 except for pretending to play the bass on the TV show Transparent \u2013 Collins created a soundtrack for\u00a0STAR in collaboration with her partner (going \u201cpage-for-page, like scoring a movie, but scoring a book\u201d). In keeping with the early 00s theme, the accompanying audio is available on CD.<\/p>\n
We spoke with the photographer over Zoom from her home in LA. Proudly clutching her Roswell mug, Collins revealed the celebrity she especially enjoyed photographing, her feelings about self-portraiture, and the ecstatic joy she gets from crafting. <\/p>\n
Tell me about the arc of where you started, where you\u2019ve gone, and what you\u2019re returning to.<\/p>\n Petra Collins: In an artist\u2019s life, when you start, it\u2019s your most instinctual and most childlike process, because you\u2019re just learning. I\u2019m always looking back to see what I can learn from the past. But as I was looking back, I missed that type of freedom in my photography. I started photography because I always wanted to direct a film. I was shooting everything horizontally like frames from a movie. 16 years or whatever passed. I had to turn my camera vertical to fit into fashion. For the book, I really wanted it to feel like you\u2019re flipping through stills of film. Returning to shooting in that one format was super important to me. It\u2019s such a simple concept, but when you\u2019re changing the frame, you\u2019re telling a different story, and you\u2019re fitting movements and space into a different landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n When I started, I was obviously working with no crew. I was placing my subjects into environments and just capturing them. I wanted to return to that. The production was, I guess, similar to an indie film: we didn\u2019t build any sets, we shot entirely on location. With our cast, I just gave them a little bit of an idea of the story, and then let them go. In my head, I\u2019ve always thought of myself as a documentarian, but documenting the world that I\u2019ve created.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always thought of myself as a documentarian, but documenting the world that I\u2019ve created\u201d \u2013 Petra Collins<\/p>\n The book feels allegorical, but you also talk about the way in which it\u2019s based on an existing pop star narrative. Did you have some concrete points of reference?\u00a0<\/p>\n Petra Collins: The camera\u2019s point of view is God-like, where it could be anybody telling this story: the pop star, a fan, a stalker. There weren\u2019t any specific references to people, honestly. We don\u2019t have phones in the story, but it\u2019s very much about how fans interact with the figures they\u2019re obsessed with, and how that really shaped the relationship the pop star has with the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m fascinated with the parasocial aspect of fans. That was actually a big part of it for me, and also about the mental journey that one can spin out on. It\u2019s about everything I\u2019ve observed, because I grew up in tabloid culture. I remember that being really horrible. Now, it\u2019s become even worse, where there\u2019s no privacy and no boundary with fans. I\u2019m more interested in telling the story of how our relationships to these icons have changed, and also how isolating it feels to be that person in the spotlight. There isn\u2019t one person. It\u2019s really more about that experience of what fame can do.<\/p>\n You have photographed lots of famous people. How do you reinvent a vision of someone who arrives with pre-existing cultural power?\u00a0<\/p>\n Petra Collins: I mean, it\u2019s wild. I\u2019m so aware of these false narratives when I go into shooting someone; I\u2019m very lucky that I\u2019m able to have a conversation before and ask what they\u2019re looking to emote, or what they\u2019re looking to show the world. It\u2019s dangerous going into that situation because there\u2019s so much power behind the camera that you can dictate the narrative of this person. But it really is a conversation. I have a lot of fun with it. I end up creating these images that people haven\u2019t necessarily seen \u2013 that\u2019s my favourite thing to do. I feel like there\u2019s so much fashion photography where you don\u2019t necessarily see who the person is; they\u2019re sort of erased. I find it so interesting to put a very strong idea forward.<\/p>\n Is there a particular example where you felt able to showcase someone in a new light?\u00a0<\/p>\n Petra Collins: The Nicole Kidman shoot<\/a> I did for Time. That\u2019s actually a perfect example of coming up with ideas, and that person\u2019s not comfortable, so you don\u2019t do it, and then you pivot. I obviously had been a fan of hers for years \u2013 few people take my breath away that I am nervous to be around. But she just had such an amazing aura and had a strong idea of how she wanted to be photographed, and we were able to do this really intimate, beautiful portrait. I had her on the ground, in this Miu Miu nurse\u2019s dress. I love those images so much.\u00a0<\/p>\n I really try to put into practice \u2013 and I think a lot of artists should put into practice \u2013\u00a0listening to your subject, and then you get the best result, because you also want the subject to be happy with the images, or to celebrate the images. You could just feel it in the photos that we were both really excited.\u00a0<\/p>\n I know you\u2019re not disclosing anything about the film that you\u2019re working on, but are there any directors who are especially inspirational to you?<\/p>\n Petra Collins: I just did my four favourites for Letterboxd. There\u2019s the Canadian director [Atom Egoyan] who directed Exotica. Exotica is about these very heavy topics: it\u2019s a bunch of stories interwoven about trauma and sexual assault \u2013 that\u2019s what I get from the movie, but it doesn\u2019t explicitly say that. I love films that are very withholding, and there\u2019s a lot of ambiguity to the story. When I was picking my four favourites, I was like, \u2018Why do I like these?\u201d They all have this specific theme to them. The viewer has to create their own narratives because they aren\u2019t explicit, but there are a lot of things you can glean from watching, and it\u2019s fascinating.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s also what\u2019s so fun about a great horror movie, where you don\u2019t see the monster. The Blair Witch Project, for example: it\u2019s amazing not seeing what the monster is; it\u2019s stronger when someone creates it in their mind. The idea of my book is also: you don\u2019t necessarily see what the monster is. I think it\u2019s so fun when the viewers\u2019 minds can just run wild. It goes back to what storytelling was like: listening to a story as a child or being told a folktale, and you\u2019re creating this image in your head. We\u2019re in the age where we\u2019re inundated with images and information \u2013 it\u2019s really nice to be told a story where you can think for yourself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>
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Photography Petra Collins<\/p>\n<\/a>
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Photography Petra Collins<\/p>\n
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Photography Petra Collins<\/p>\n