Petra Collins' "STAR": A Dark Look at Fame

Artist Petra Collins has released her new book, "STAR," on Tuesday, offering a photographic exploration of fame and fandom. The book presents the narrative of a fictional pop star who becomes involved with an Asian pop group, providing a dark perspective on celebrity culture. Each of the five chapters is named after a 1990s or 2000s pop song and follows the journey of Ashley, a student who gains solo stardom alongside the girl group Siren8.

The story of Ashley's mysterious disappearance is told through unreliable narrators, including a devoted fan and her closest friend. Visually, "STAR" marks a return to Collins's earlier "flowy and naïve" aesthetic, characterized by unstudied, diffuse imagery. This approach, combined with sparse prose, revisits her long-standing theme of the intense gaze directed at girls.

Collins, who has always aspired to direct films, has begun work on her first feature. The concept for "STAR" was partly inspired by her "OMG, I'm Being Killed" series, which repurposed rejected commissioned work. This project explored the question of femininity, which Collins describes as a difficult and dark subject, a perspective she feels has intensified with current online imagery.

Collins, 33, noted the overwhelming and often negative online content for girls and women, which she finds worse than when she was growing up in the 2000s. She experienced unwanted attention from a young age, feeling guilt and shame, a sentiment she believes is amplified today. Her career, spanning over half her life, has captured a Gen Y aesthetic, influencing her role as a photographer for "Rookie" and as a director for music videos by artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Selena Gomez.

Originating from Toronto, Collins began photography in high school and worked professionally for "Vice" magazine by 2010. She co-founded the Ardorous, a feminist artist collective, that same year, providing a crucial platform for young artists in early internet art culture. Collins also has experience on the other side of the camera, appearing in Ryan McGinley's "Roadtrip" photo series and modeling for brands like Gucci and Chloé. She recently returned from Paris Fashion Week, where she served as a social media correspondent for Miu Miu.

Ryan McGinley describes Collins as an artist who moves seamlessly between fine art, fashion, and pop music. He observes a consistent thread throughout her diverse body of work. Collins herself leans towards the descriptor "curator," finding satisfaction in arranging works to create meaningful dialogues, though she admits her creative process is unmethodical and best captured internally rather than documented.

Collins's early photographic style, a dreamy and hazy vision of teenage girlhood, partly stemmed from her severe eyesight issues. As someone with significantly impaired vision, she found photography a way to see more clearly, contributing to the softness in her early images. This visual blur is also complemented by a sense of dislocation stemming from her childhood experiences with English as a second language and a feeling of alienation.

While she has spoken about her past family dynamics, including her father's legal career and her mother's refugee status, Collins maintains distance from discussing them directly. She acknowledges that her work is influenced by past abuse and an unstable upbringing, including experiences of eviction. She remains very close to her younger sister, Anna, a dancer who serves as her muse, and is engaged to composer Jake Nadrich.