An Interview with Kitty Callaghan: on Experimental Fashion Collages
Kitty Callaghan and her fashionable “cut-and-paste” experiments through photography and mixed media has a distinct style to them — playful, colorful, yet elegant. Kitty sits down with us for a one-on-one on how she developed her signature art all on her own.
Here’s Lomography Magazine’s interview with Kitty.
Hi Kitty! We’re delighted to have you in Lomography. First things first, how did you find yourself in the art of photo collages?
I used to make birthday cards and collages as a kid as presents for my friends and family. As a teenager, these developed into books and little artworks.
Your photo collages are usually of portraits — somehow lenient to fashion photography which makes them look like pop-ups from a fashion magazine! May you tell us why you prefer to collage them this way?
The female body is what I collage most with. I work with a fashion brand named Ellery so I guess this is primarily where the fashion element first came into my work. And I love working with textures so I think this what often gives the images a somewhat 3d effect, as the figure and textures contrast.
Where do your source materials come from? Do you photograph the portraits and backgrounds, or get the photographs from some image bank?
It’s a mix of both. I love to take photos so I use my own where I can. All of the images that I use that are not my own are sourced from antique and vintage book shops and also second-hand photographs from private collections. I also paint parts of the collages myself.
Photo collage is still a new art. In your own words, how does collage work become similar to photography?
I feel that many collage artists have an ability to take an image and make a whole new story with it. You can give new life to something that might be overlooked, and you can tie seemingly unrelated images together. When they sit in harmony together it’s quite special.
Surrealism is a term very related to your work. Whom do you look up to in photo collaging?
At the moment I am really into BD Graft’s work. He combines paint and collage beautifully, particularly in his “Add Some Yellow” series.
What else do you usually do during your downtime?
It depends on what day it is!
As an artist, how do you make sure you keep growing in your craft?
Through traveling and often through music.
Lastly, what’s your next creative endeavor?
I have been designing a scarf series with a friend that I hope to launch this year.
If you loved Kitty’s works, read our first feature or visit her website and Instagram.
Written by Ciel Hernandez. Originally published at lomography.com.
