Kayla Varley is an American advertising photographer/director, she is a popular photographer working in many popular LA, London, and NYC. developed her photographical skills at a very young age( being 13 years old). She had the support of her father, who bought her the camera at 13, she stated she used it a as a documentative way, to document her teenage life. “but it allowed me to express my emotions in a healthy way. The way I used to shoot was more about taking note of my own life, or documenting my surroundings. When I was younger I just saw things and wanted to capture what was happening.” which later she said “Now I set up circumstances that allow for an intentional creative space and energy.”, showing how her style changed and developed over the years.
Regarding the work she is producing now, she focuses on different kinds of portraits, both showing her aesthetics and having elements of her in them, one consist of mostly advertising photography, including makeup brands, clothing brands etc. and the other are portraits are more for her photographic, more artistic and more hobby work. these photographs would be without the intention of advertisement , rather more created for aesthetic purposes. i am more interested in the 2nd portraiture she creates, rather than advertisement. this is because i feel the models are ore created to the photographer and photograph, it seems more personal.
I have been inspired my Varley’s work when i was researching photographers that are moved by feminisim and show it in their work. on this website https://www.lomography.com/magazine/327804-8-women-photographers-on-feminism-confidence-photography i have came across her work and what stood out to me the most is what she had said “I don’t think women should be afraid of showing their true selves. When we have the space to be who we really are, and we are not afraid, we flourish. I hope that someday we can shape our society so that women don’t ever think twice about their appearance or behavior – we have the right to act however we please.” after reading this, i have researched her website https://www.kaylavarley.com/portrait . from then on i have selected images which i preferred the most, so i can show which images inspire me the most and of which ones i like the appearance of the most. however she she has a much bigger variety of photographs then i could include in this blog post.
reading a couple interviews she has done in order to understand the motivation and context behind her work, some of the answers to certain questions are quite inspiring and especially as a learning photographer, very helpful. For example the answer she replied to a question about what makes a good image to her: “A good image is an image with soul, impact, emotion, and good composition. I believe a photographer should always put a little bit of himself into an image. Without an emotional connection I think an image is that and you forget it once you’ve stopped looking at it.” i completely agree with this, and this is why in most of my future work i would truly put purpose for my images but also attempt to show it, while photographing items or producing photographs that show me, and the connection with what i would be photographing. I plan to produce images based on visions and plans made before, always considering impact, good composition and emotional connection.
on https://www.c-heads.com/2014/01/05/a-talk-with-kayla-varley/ she has said “Women are beautiful to me all of the time. My idea of beauty is a warm energy and a loving heart. Beauty comes from within- when a woman walks in a room and she has confidence, there’s nothing else like it.”
why I am so interested to what she has to say about finding inspiration from women and her work in general, is because I would potentially produce images that may differ aesthetically to hers, however they will be produced based on the advise I have gathered from the research.
I love how diverse her work is, showing haw great of a photographer she is, as she can work with many different environments and situations that sometimes might be tricky to shoot in, however she still manages to make unique photographs. you can see the confidence put out in the photographs, this empowerment she spoke about earlier, all her images do exactly what she wishes, which is to embrace these feminine traits and empower others through the connection shown in the photographs. i like how cinematic the images look, like they were taken from a movie or straight from someones life as they we happening, even though most are staged for an organized photoshoot. her work is meant to reel you into a spontaneous, but intentional space, where each image has a sense of movement, which brings the individual photographs more alive. Each image is meant to bring to life the human emotion, and capture a fleeting, magical environment.
what i also like is how broad her work is, that although she does have a significant style, she manipulates it to the person she is photographing and valuing showing these feminine qualities. for example the softness and delicate feel each image has, while most are exiting and spontaneous they have a sense of peace and balance.
What inspires me the most about her work is this playfulness she shows in women, she adapts each photograph to show a persons nature and how they feel to her, this could mean the photograph its self is so personal and filled with connection between the subject and the photographer. i have decided to analyse one of her images above, out of many other outstanding photographs she has produced, because I think this respond so well to what i wish to capture. I really like the composition of tones seen in the photograph, not only with this image but with many other photographs of her’s, the tones and colours always make sense, always have a theme and are never too overwhelming. this photograph shows femininity in it’s best way, showing the gentle side of women. the creamy colours link to the gentle nature women tend to be. i wish to embrace the softer side of women in my final photographs, i want to display movement and softness, to show, like the picture above, the fun that women have in them. this photograph shows this, the picture captures the movement of the women, her hair being messy and frozen in time. i think her hair is a vital part to the photograph, because it’s movement can suggest so much, the direction and how it flows shows how she was moving. even centuries ago when people would create painting of women they payed attention to women’s hair, it is symbolic and gives different meanings depending on the hair type/texture. Hair is one of the most feminizing elements of a woman’s body,and is traditionally seen as a sign of womanhood. this picture shows how confident the woman is in her femininity, but the movement also may suggest freedom. there are many factors to why i link this image with freedom but also reaching freedom and peace through embracing femininity. for example the direction of her looking into the light, and the use of light it”s self. the light which looks like sunlight, falls gently onto her face, the use of light also narrows the viewers focuses on her face. as you pay more attention to her face, and her expression, it shows joy, and happiness, which to me has a close link to confidence and freedom, as she has been put in the spotlight. almost like reveling her true self, the spotlight can have many connotations of revealing. to many this revealing can be of many forms, like femininity, freedom, true self etc. however whatever it is it all has a link to identity, this will be more personal to person being photographed or the photographer, but the meaning this image is trying to tell is do do with ones identity, which will be taken apart in different forms by different people.