Author | Annie Malamet | Visual Arts Editor
Bold colors, clean lines, and a preference for leggy blondes characterizes New York-based photographer Kate Owen’s general aesthetic. Her photographs fit into a legacy of sexy, edgy lens- based images that cater to the human lust for eye-popping, lush, gorgeous imagery. “My favorite photographers are Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton. Such sexy badass photographers,” says Kate. “Each individual image that these guys produced has it’s own story, and when you break it down it doesn’t always make sense…. Not everything needs to have some long drawn out reason behind it. Why did Guy Bourdin have a girl’s legs coming out from the floor? Because it looks awesome.”
Owen takes certain images simply because they are ripe for the taking. A blonde girl staring into the sunset does not need to be contemplating her mortality; sometimes her golden hair just works well against the hot pink sky. In academia, the question is always why do we take pictures? What about this image needed to be captured? Sometimes it’s refreshing to meet an artist who creates work out of the simple fact that she enjoys it, and she does it well. “I find myself getting obsessed by things — doors, walls, colors, lines. I get so excited by them,” Kate says of her formalism. But there is also a perky, free flowing and fun element to her subject matters, “I love taking pictures of my friends. I think I drive them crazy actually. I always want to capture everything around me. Whatever excites me I want a picture of. I also have a terrible memory too so part of me likes taking pictures so that I can remember how I felt in that moment… When I’m old and decrepit I want my grandkids to know I had a lot of fun.”
It fits that Owen has a large body of commercial work; her sensibility lends itself to that hip, Californian, laid back vibe that fashion photography tries to evoke. In regards to her personal work versus her professional portfolio, I asked if there was anyway that the two bleed into or influence one another. “There’s never been much separation in my mind,” she told me, “I have different ideas and aesthetics depending on the image and client, but at the end of the day I’m trying to do the same thing: create images that resonate with people. A lot of themes cross over, and often one aspect of a picture will give me an idea for another shoot. Punchy is a common theme. I like photos with energy.” Indeed, both Owen’s professional and personal photography share this punch of color, the sense of movement and energy. It often looks like her times spent with friends on the road or the beach look hand-picked from an editorial spread.
Perhaps my personal biases have led me to this opinion, but I find the most interesting photographs are the ones where Owen captures the intimate lives of the women she is surrounded by. Whether the subject is a friend relaxed in bed and nude, or a model behind the scenes of a fashion show staring off into space, these are the images that crossover from being beautiful editorial photographs, to complicated works of art.
As for her current projects, Owen seems to have no problem integrating her work into mainstream media. “I just shot Aidy Bryant from SNL for Paper Magazine and finished a series of polaroids from New York Fashion Week in collaboration with the Impossible Project for Flaunt Magazine. Both very exciting projects.” I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of this photographer’s signature bold style in the upcoming months.
