These are the portraits I shot of the artist Cammi Climaco for her interview with East Village Boys. Looking at Cammi’s work, I thought it would be appropriate and fun to do some studio portraits of her that are informed by the customs, and to a certain extent the aesthetics, of american high-school senior-year portraits. My aim was not to make silly ironic fake senior portraits of an artist acting like a teenager, but rather have the senior-portrait qualities function as the construct for a serious portrait shoot of an artist who is obsessed with that period of personal development. I was also really happy to have a good reason to use that purple back drop.

From EVB: Cammi Climaco’s art has a fervently angst-ridden lyricism to it that is nostalgic for a cluttered bedroom patterned with love-song quotes and oversized band posters. She wants you to take her hand, spoon her and her stumbling secrets – but she doesn’t want you to smear her with your air-guitar romantics. Is there much of a difference between the drama of adolescence and that of adulthood?

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