Petra Collins: an artist who is truly pushing boundaries.
“Curating, in the modern sense, is something I gravitate to. Taking different ideas from a bunch of different places and putting them into one place or space, a story that makes sense or a new idea. Everything is remixed and taken from other things to make something new.”
Petra Collins.
Petra is known for her feminist and highly sexually charged work. Petra is a portraiture photographer, fashion photographer and fashion designer from Toronto, Ontario,Canada, who is currently based in New York City. As a child, she attended Rosedale Heights School of the Arts in Canada. At age 15, Collins began her interest and career in photography at Rosedale. After finishing at the Ontario College of Art and Design, she moved to NYC. During her time in high school, Petra met photographer, writer, and filmmaker Richard Kern while assisting on one of his shoots. Eventually, she became his casting director when he was in Toronto, and he became her mentor.
Shot by Petra Collins for Oyster Magazine
“Yes. My photos are not completely rid of any male gaze that I’ve internalised. It’s such a crazy thing that I’m still always working through. How do you own your sexuality and feel totally in control? It’s something I’ve learned as I’ve grown up. I started taking photos when I was 15 or 16, so I was going through puberty, my first encounters with the male gaze, being aware of attention from men and kind of wanting that attention but also struggling with making it my own. As I kept creating images I’d constantly look back to see the differences between my photos then and my photos now. I also see it in images of myself — not necessarily in my artwork, but sometimes I’m like, “I just created an image that I know was just for a male viewer,” and I have to think about it and work through those issues with myself and my body and my self-worth and my confidence.”
Today, Petra has designed multiple t-shirts for American Apparel, has been interviewed by Time magazine and Vice magazine, and has a deal with Prestel Publishing for an art book which will consist of not only her own work, but pieces she will select from other artists. She was also considered as one of Canada’s top 30 young photographers under 30 by Bloun Artinfo, named as “The Person To Watch” in 2013 by The Toronto Star, and has been featured on MTV, CTV, and The National Post. She has shot for I-D Magazine, Rookie Magazine, L’officiel Hommes, Dazed Digital, Interview Magazine, LOVE Magazine, Wonderland Magazine, New York Magazine, The WILD Magazine, Nero Magazine, Vice, Miss Vogue, Garage Magazine, Oyster Magazine, Bad Day Magazine, Vogue Italia, and Jacques Magazine.
Shot by Petra Collins for Nylon Magazine
“I’m still finding myself as a feminist and feminism plays a big part in my work, I think the female is a subject I’ll be studying for a long time.”
Petra Collins: Discharge, Capricious 88
Check out Petra’s website here:
Make sure you check out her instagram to see a lot of her behind the scenes work:
http://instagram.com/petrafcollins
And her interview with Oyster Magazine on femininity and censorship here:
http://www.oystermag.com/petra-collins-on-censorship-and-the-female-body