Deconstructing Frida

With Kate O'Brien

By Irina Souiki

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best."
-- Frida Kahlo

Indeed, most self-portraitists do know themselves better than everyone else, but when you see how Kate O'Brian captures each and every one of the characters in her pictures, you will wish you were her model. You might even wish she were your best friend. Although I grew up like a tomboy, most girls like to dress up, do makeup, do their nails and wear princess shoes; they want to live the fairytale for a day, an hour or just a dreamlike photographic moment. Kate certainly could make those dreams come true.

She can turn you into a pin-up, a fashion model, an adventurer lost in the middle of the jungle, an Emperor or a schoolgirl. With Kate's imagination and makeup talent, the possibilities are endless. I could spend the entire day in her wardrobe, trying each costume one by one, but I would still trust her to take the best pictures.

Leonie, her model and muse, trusted Kate to give life to Frida once more, in a photograph. She was right, the result is striking and I could not wait to learn more about this picture.

Kate's answers are both surprising and funny, let's hear them :

Please tell us a few things about yourself and your photographs.

I only started taking photos a year ago, before that I was working in soft sculpture and painting, however when I was a child I used to dress up Barbie dolls and take photos of them, so really when you think of it, I've come full circle!

May I ask why you chose the "Eye Candy for the Broken Hearted" name on Flickr?

I was in a relationship with someone that was going very badly when I needed to come up with a name for my website. At that time I felt desperately unhappy, and I began to think about how powerful it is to be able to make people happy. So I set out to create wonderful photographs that showed those two sides of life which is why some of my work is quite dark and unhappy and some of it is vividly coloured and very whimsical looking. I wanted people to look at my photos and maybe believe even for a little while that life isn't that bad after all.

You are a very versatile artist : you paint, you create costumes, you do makeup, you take pictures. I would like to know which one of these activities you find the most fun of all?

I enjoy taking the photos at the end of the process the most. I like doing all the other parts, although they can become quite tedious, but the best part of all is seeing everything come together at the end of all the hard work. A lot of the costume making I do requires a lot of time and expense, but seeing everything work out in the way I envisioned it is the best reward of all.

About the picture featured in this cool shot column, why Frida Kahlo?

To be perfectly honest I don't feel any real affinity with Frida Kahlo, but visually she was pretty striking. It was a spur of the moment decision to make a photo based on her, I had the right kind of clothes on hand so Leonie (my model) and I got to work.

Is Leonie your muse or does she come up with the ideas for the costumes?

I guess you'd say Leonie is my muse, although she can be helpful at noticing small details, such as if her make-up isn't quite right or one of my lights isn't functioning properly. She is very tolerant and laid back which makes her a great person to work with.

Can you explain to us the technical details involved in this photoshoot?

Hmmmm.....thats a tough one because it was so long ago. I guess I was using Tungsten lighting, a very standard set-up with one light on the subject and two lighting the background. The painterly effect on the backdrop is acheived by painting a sheet of MDF with gold metallic paint in a crosshatch pattern. It is an economical and effective way to create a background. Heavy make-up was applied to Leonie's face to make her skin look darker and more dramatic and some airbrushing was done in Photoshop to give her complexion a flawless look.

Do you use Photoshop or do you rely mostly on makeup, costumes and lighting to create the final result?

I like to think I use about the same of each. I do less photoshopping than most people realise, I absolutely refuse to photoshop in props or anything that wasn't really there. The only adjustments I let myself make are to neaten up loose strands of hair and to even out someone's face tone if I want it too look like a Catholic prayer card or something.

What is the Icon's symbolism in this picture?

Because the Mexican culture is so dominated by the Catholic faith I wanted to include something that reflected that. I would've liked to have used a Sacred Heart motif, but I had to use what I had on hand and the Icon was the first thing I picked up that I thought might work.

Are there any other famous people that you or your models would like to impersonate?

I would like to start a series of works that dealt with Classical or Mythological subjects. Back in Medieval times many works seemed to deal with Allegorical themes. I think that would be a lot of fun not only visually, but to collect props for too.

Is Frida Kahlo an inspiration for you? If not, is there another painter or photographer who inspires you?

Frida Kahlo doesn't really inspire me that much which is not to say I don't respect the work she did as an artist. I am a big fan of Danielle Bedics. Her work is always so perfect. Everything is perfectly lit, perfectly styled and she works with the best. Apart from that I am totally besotted by the work of Mark Romanek, Floria Sigismondi and Dayton and Farris; all video artists, maybe that's an area I should try to move into next.

Anything funny, out of ordinary or plain weird happened during this photoshoot?

Not really, interestingly though Leonie told me that it was very frustrating having a "monobrow" as she comes from a Maltese family and they spend a lot of time and money waxing and plucking their eyebrows to be nice and neat and in this photo I drew some big black eyebrows on with an eyeliner pencil :)

What is your definition of a cool shot?

Something that really deserves the title eye candy. Something that immediately grabs you and makes you wonder how it was done. I love staged photographs, I love costume, I love theatrics. This style of photography allows me to use all my skills at the same time I can't imagine my life without photography.

Thank you Kate for your participation to this "Cool Shot" column. I hope you inspired our readers to dress up, take themselves less seriously and maybe take a few steps towards their camera. Photography is fun, why not take full advantage of the possibilities it offers? One of them is self discovery. You never know which character will show up in the mirror.

Below are a few more photographs from Kate O'Brien's portfolio, unique, whimsical and totally "cool" :