BIO
Bootsy Holler is an intuitive American artist who has worked in photography for 30 years. She is best known for her work as a portraitist, beginning with intimate depictions of herself and her friends at the center of Seattle's pivotal music scene during the early 1990s and 2000s. These formative years working both ends of the lens cemented her style and methodology. Her empathic journalistic approach informed her work as she segued into a thriving commercial and editorial practice while at the same time always creating art. Her art revolves around family, subconscious memory, eco-feminism, and giving feelings to the inanimate.
Holler currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She has been recognized by the Society of Photographic Journalism and selected for Critical Mass Top 50 twice. Her art images have appeared in numerous publications like VOGUE, House & Garden, Aesthetica, Dodho, FOA, AAP Magazine, and Chinese Photographer Magazine. Her seminal work is in the permanent collection of the Grammy Museum. She has shown work at The Foley Gallery, in NYC, and in 2020 she was invited to exhibit at the Shanghai International Photo Festival. She has hung art at London Photo, Fotofever, Paris, The Griffin Museum of Photography, the California Museum of Photography, and The Center for Fine Art Photography. In 2025 she published her third monograph MAKiNG iT: an intimate documentary of the Seattle Indie, rock & punk scene, 1992-2008, with Damiani Books and signed copies at Paris Photo 2025, and toured the PNW.
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. This happens when I connect personally to an environment, object, feeling, or person. I create images of what emotionally moves me and hope the audience can feel this in the imagery. All my work can also be seen as a projection of how I want people to see me, an ideal view of self through the lens.
Composition and balance are most important to me. I love to capture patterns, textures, and blocks of negative space brought on by my background in textiles and fashion. 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 light rather than "correcting" it. I'm always trying to preserve a moment's existing look and feel.
My ideas come about organically, usually from a vision, drawing, or personal experience that triggers a full-blown project. I feel the best art happens when you're not thinking about "why"—just doing. I prepare for a shoot, but I'm always guided to the truth through my instincts and play.
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