Carolyne Loreé
carolyne loreé is a new york city based photographer specializing in both analog and digital photography.
Her work focuses on portraiture, fashion and still life. Inclusivity is her most valued principal in life and while making art with others.
Tell us a little bit about your background, and where you grew up.
I’m from Dahlonega, Georgia. It’s a small town in the foothills of the Blueridge Mountains. I was born in San Diego, California but came of age and grew up in the South.
Where are you based now that you’re designing?
I moved to New York in 2012. I visited for the first time shortly after I turned 24 and moved here a few weeks later.
What interests you about photography? What about self portraiture and nudity?
The immediacy of capturing color and light when making an image is important to me. My work is intentional, and I enjoy the process of taking time to conceptualize and compose each frame but capturing the image in a more timely way than other media like painting or sculpture would allow.
My self portraiture explores what femininity means to me and how my self-definition evolves as I grow older. Capturing images of myself is one way that I grapple with how I see myself versus how I hope to be perceived by the outside world.
The purity of nudity is what has always drawn me to it. When we allow ourselves to feel beautiful in nothing but our own skin, we create the potential to live more empathetically towards the Earth and one another.
“when we allow ourselves to feel beautiful in nothing but our own skin, we create the potential to live more empathetically towards the earth and one another.”
What camera/cameras do you use?
I use a 1970s Mamiya RB67 that used to be my uncle’s. I also use a couple different vintage Canon 35mm cameras. My favorite one is the camera that my mother used to photograph my brother and me while we were growing up.
Do you have any repeat processes or habits you find yourself returning to in your work?
I find that classical portraiture finds itself into my work one way or another, regardless of the project. I’m drawn to other people and the intimacy of making a portrait together. There’s a level of trust that’s required to create something so personal with another. I feel honored when someone trusts me enough to capture their image.
What is currently inspiring you?
Intersectionality and the woman who introduced the concept, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, have been significant inspirations to me lately. Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw is a philosopher, lawyer and professor who coined the term “intersectionality” over 30 years ago. Her theories couldn’t be more relevant or helpful than right now in 2020. Her important work attempts to destroy gender and racial hierarchies by studying how various constructs of discrimination overlap and intersect. I find her theories so valuable because I believe that by recognizing the facts - that we all have vastly different life experiences due to our race, gender, sexual identity and class - we can attempt to live with more empathy and understanding for one another. Living this way would allow for power to be spread amongst all demographics, with everyone having similar opportunities and autonomy over their own lives. I find Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s work towards true equality indescribably inspiring.
“Capturing images of myself is one way that I grapple with how I see myself versus how I hope to be perceived by the outside world.”
Name 3 personal heroes, can be related or unrelated to your field and why:
Malala Yousafzai. Her commitment to her mission of all girls’ right to education is unwavering, even in the face of death. She is a living definition of true bravery.
Angela Davis. When not many other could be bothered to take any action, she has committed herself to a lifelong fight for women of color, incarcerated people and the poor. I want to live in Angela Davis’ America, and my hope is that my future daughter or son will have that opportunity.
Martha Graham. She redefined dance and created a new form of art centered around the female experience. For me, her work is spiritual and heartbreaking. Her legacy inspires me to create work based on what I already know, what I fear and what I hope for most.
“you have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. and you have to do it all the time.”
For more information about Carolyne Loree and her work, follow her on instagram.
Interview published for ONE Magazine Online