Born and raised in New York City, and Suffern, NY, with pit stops in South Carolina and New Orleans, photographer Arielle Bobb-Willis has been using the camera for nearly a decade as a tool for empowerment. Battling with depression from an early age, Bobb-Willis found solace behind the lens and has developed a visual language that speaks to the complexities of life: the beautiful, strange, isolation, connection, and sense of belonging.
Inspired by master painters like Max Ernst, Clementine Hunter, and Jacob Lawrence, Bobb-Willis applies a “painterly” touch to her photography by documenting people in compromising and disjointed positions as a way to highlight these complexities of life. Teetering between fashion and contemporary art, her use of vivid colours is therapeutic and speaks to a desire to claim power and joy in moments of sadness, confusion, or confinement.
Bobb-Willis’s photographs are all captured in urban and rural cities travelling through the US and abroad as a way of finding home from a grassy knoll to a city sidewalk, reminding us to stay connected and grounded during life’s transitional moments.
Bobb-Willis is currently based in Los Angeles and is represented by Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris. Clients and collaborators include Vogue, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Variety, Nike, Apple, Thom Brown, Valentino, Ugg, Converse, and Hérmes.
