Holly Whitaker : Life Through The Lens
From touring with Squid and rediscovering her post-lockdown creativity with Goat Girl to shooting Shame a on micro-pig farm…
No, we are not talking about a fanatic Doctor Doolittle animal lover, we are talking about Holly Whittaker.
Holly has been on our radar for a while, shooting all of the coolest artists around (The Lemon Twigs, Sinead O’Brien, Sorry, Fontaine’s DC,& Happyness to name a few), so when she agreed to give us an archive show and tell, we were very excited.
ONE OF YOUR EARLIEST PHOTOS:
“Here's a photo of my friend Florence. We took these photos in 2014 after we'd walked around Shoreditch and found her an outfit for her first ever premiere - it was a black jumpsuit with green flowery mesh material from Rokit I seem to remember…”
“They were the first photos I'd taken that weren't just for profile pictures for my school friends, although we were just messing around in the park, I had a look at them after I got home and was really proud of them and decided I wanted to give photography a go. In all honesty, I had been pursuing acting for a long time and the auditions can get tiring and rejection can be scary for a teenage girl, so being on the other side of the camera was a nice relief!”
YOUR MOST RECENT SHOT:
“The most recent shoot I'm allowed to share is the lookbook I shot for my friend's new knitwear collection, she'd been working on these pieces for so long, and we wanted people to finally see them! The white dress in the photo is actually a piece she made for uni called Dual Heritage, which isn't knitwear but I think it's so beautiful. We shot it in her flat in her on no budget, so I'm really happy with the result. Her work is absolutely beautiful!”
( Check it out here )
THE SHOOT YOU ARE MOST PROUD OF:
“This Goat Girl shot! I was stagnating creatively over lockdown and honestly thought I'd run out of work forever, so going back to working with some of my best friends on a set that was so exciting and colourful revived me completely and helped me so much, the set was built in the back garden of Lottie and Rosy's house and took 4 days to complete!”
THE MOST FUN YOU’VE HAD ON A SHOOT:
“Off the top of my head I think of the album cover shoot I did with Shame, merely because it was at a micropig farm. They squealed so loud it was deafening, but it was a really brilliantly bizarre experience.”
WHO ARE YOU LISTENING TO AT THE MOMENT?
“I wish I had photos of Leikeli47 and Jorge Ben Jor, because that's pretty much exclusively what I've been listening to this year! But I'd say other than that, Jerkcurb, PVA's new EP, Crack Cloud, The Garden and Black Midi!”
THE SHOOT YOU WERE MOST NERVOUS FOR:
“Oh definitely Mitski. I think she's so cool. I was quaking in my boots, and she noticed. During the first part of the shoot I was so nervous making any decisions that she looked at me directly in the eyes and told me to take control. Mortifying… It worked out though!”
SOMEONE THAT EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE ON THEIR RADAR:
“Tallulah Haddon! A very talented actor, and incredibly captivating presence and performer. They are definitely one to watch. I took photos of them with their cat in their family home in Camberwell and I took them just before lockdown. It was the first roll of film I got back once I could get film developed again and thought they exude a real air of calm and comfort, so it was lovely to get them back after so much time.”
FAVOURITE CANDID SHOT:
“It's a toss-up between these 2 photos.”
“The first one is my friend Aramide, we took these in 2013 or 14, when we would practice taking photos with each other and I caught her laughing in her living room, it actually ended up being shown at the Tate for a Tate Late, which is one of my proudest moments. The second is Martha Reeves. I still cannot believe I got the opportunity to take photos of her. I went solo to her show at Dingwalls (?!) last year, which coincidentally was where the Vandellas first played in London in the 60's, (so she said whilst she was playing), and seeing her play Nowhere to Run was a very emotional experience!
A FAVOURITE SUMMER SHOT OF YOURS TO BRIGHTEN UP OUR GREY NOVEMBER:
“I took this polaroid of Goat Girl in Kouts, Indiana on our day off the US tour with Parquet Courts in 2018. They were swinging off the rope into the lake and everyone was in a really lovely mood so I hung back and took photos of them. It's one of my favourite days I've ever had. 3 of them went kayaking and Rosy and I made a BBQ. Very happy times, I miss touring!”
A PHOTO THAT SUMS UP 2020…?
“My boyfriend being incredibly grumpy on the Bakerloo line, exactly how I've felt all year.”
“My two favourite people dancing on my table, we were having a dance party in my flat listening to The Garden and UK Garage after reminiscing on gigs and going out, it let off a huge amount of steam and we were all very, very happy.”
A PHOTOGRAPHER YOU WANT TO SHOUT OUT:
“Hollie Fernando. Her Pure Vida photoset is just one of the most gorgeous works I've ever seen. Her use of colour and light and the way her photos make you feel has inspired me a lot. So incredible.”
A FAVOURITE (LAST) BUS SHOT… ON A BUS… HOPPING OFF A BUS…COACH/TOUR BUS… YOU GET THE DRIFT.
“This might be cheating, but Squid and I ran out of the tour van into a traffic jam to get this photo, and it was terrifying, but so worth it! This is making me miss normal life so, so much.”
