Elisabeth O’Rourke is a designer of upcycled/recycled/secondhand clothing, custom jewelry maker and photographer. We love her art and you will too. Please enjoy 9.5 Questions with the ultra talented, enigmatic Elisabeth O’Rourke.
1. Landscapes in your photography are as compelling as your subjects in many cases. Was this a concentration in your early work or something you developed over time.
It sort of happened over time. I love photographing humans, it’s my number one favorite subject, but I found that in a studio things seemed really small and compressed, when what I really wanted was a sense of space. In a landscape you can really feel how small we as humans all are, just a piece of the puzzle.
2. You design and sell upcycled clothes and jewelry. Is your approach to fashion different than your approach to photography. The sensibility seems very similar.
I have always been obsessed with two things: music and fashion. Growing up I really wanted to be a fashion designer, but I was also super into punk so I was making all of these really punk shirts and vests and arm warmers, I mean everyone around me was doing the same thing, we were all so diy, so it seemed natural. When I found photography I knew I wanted to photograph things that pertained almost specifically to music and fashion, it all sort of melded together. But I’ve always sort of just made whatever I want, regardless of whether anyone else would like it or even care. Which is probably why I don’t make any money haha.
3. What living artists are you really digging right now?
Jesse Draxler is one of my absolute favorites, and Nedda Afsari (@mutedfawn on insta) she’s so fucking incredible. They both work a lot with musicians and fashion, which is exactly what I want to be doing, so i guess I look up to them a lot. They both also do a ton of collage work which has always been some of my favorite art.
4. You have access to a time machine that will take you back to the 80s. You can prevent one band from success and catapult another into stardom. Which band do you snub and which do you make (more) famous?
OMG I would tank the Red Hot Chili Peppers in a heartbeat. People are so freaking obsessed with them and I JUST DON’T CARE, lol. Hot take I’m sure. I don’t know who I would make more famous though because I mostly like to listen to music made recently. Obviously I love certain 80’s bands, The Cure, New Order, Slaughter (lol), just to name a few, but most of what I like from the 80’s is because it was already famous by the time I got to it.
5. You have been chosen as a human colonizer to Mars by SpaceX. The things you can take with you are very limited. Elon Musk says you can take three albums as part of your cargo. Which three albums do you listen to for infinity?
Lingua Ignota ‘Caligula’, Smashing Pumpkins ‘Siamese Dream’, and Chelsea Wolfe ‘Abyss’. I listen to those three so freaking much and I don’t ever seem to get tired of them. They all hit me right in the feels every time.
6. As a photographer who works with an amazing variety of clients...how do you deal with the 'difficult' ones?
I’ve actually only had one that was truly ‘difficult’. I just pulled all her photos off my Instagram and told her to just pretend the shoot never happened lol. It was so mild. But I’m a baby and don’t like conflict so I don’t think it could have happened any other way.
7. What's the best cereal ever?
Golden Grahams. Fight me.
8. Do you have a favorite picture you've taken?
I don’t. A lot of times my attachment to my work has more to do with the person I’ve shot and the specific circumstances of the shoot, which are different every time. I try really hard not to do the same thing twice, especially if I really dig it, so I like a lot of stuff equally for very different reasons. I will say that I only have two of my own photographs hanging in my house, which could be construed as favorites, both are full frontal nudes with obscured faces and decidedly UNsexy postures. That is my favorite type of work to make.
9. If you could pick anyone in the world to photograph who would you choose? Why?
Chelsea Wolfe. She definitely has that ‘thing’, it’s quiet and mysterious and beautiful. I imagine that even if the shoot wasn’t good, she would radiate out of the images and they would still be amazing simply because of her.
9.5. My biggest pet peeve is _______________.
Oh my. I am the biggest road rager you will ever meet, so definitely bad drivers, but on the flip side I also dislike bad pedestrians. The point is we all need to watch out for each other a little more.
You can find Elisabeth here:
Instagram: Slaughternostalgia
Instagram: elisabethorourke