BIO
Bootsy Holler is an intuitive artist who has been a working photographer for over 25 years in music, editorial, advertising and fine art. Best known for her remarkably sensitive style of portraiture, she has been noticed and awarded by the Society of Photographic Journalism (SPJ) and Association of Alternative News-media (AAN).
Now a fine art photographer her work examines the nature of emotions, of identity and the reimagined family album.
She received her BA with a concentration on Textiles from Western Washington University, Bellingham. After a career as a freelance Director, Producer and Photographer she relocated to Los Angeles to focus on fine art.
Bootsy has exhibited in 17 solo shows and over 30 group exhibitions at institutions such as The Center for Fine Art Photography, New Orleans Photo Alliance, Benham Gallery, The New Space Photo Center, Photo Center Northwest, and Fotofever, Paris. Her fine art has been featured in publications including PDN, NPR, Lenscratch, Rangefinder, Fraction Magazine as well as Seattle Weekly, The Stranger, Santa Barbara News-Press, and Real Simple Magazine.
Her Visitor series was selected for Critical Mass Top 50. She has been commissioned by commercial companies to design and produce art for their creative advertising spaces and has work in the Grammy Museum permanent collection, as well as in private collections around the United States and Europe. She has recently published her second monograph TREASURES objects I’ve known all my life.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Most of all I want to show viewers the beauty in people and things they might otherwise ignore. In that sense, all my work is portraiture—an image that captures the essential personality or emotions of the subject. That happens when I make a personal connection to an environment, object, feeling or person. I take pictures of what moves me and hope the audience can feel this in my work. It can also be a projection of how I want people to see me, an ideal idea of myself.
Composition and balance are most important to me. With my background in textiles and fashion, I love to capture patterns, textures, and blocks of negative space. With color, My goal is to capture the actual emotion that color brings to a surrounding. If the environment is warm or cool to the eye, my impulse is to capture the look of that environment rather than “correcting” it. My goal is to always try to preserve the existing look and feel of a moment.
My ideas come about organically, usually from an image, drawing or personal experience that triggers a full blown project. I feel like the best art happens when you’re not thinking about “why”—just doing. The fewer restraints I put on myself the better the work. I plan and prepare for the shoot as necessary, but when the time comes I let my instincts guide me.