Lindsey Ruth - Discovering your style
LA photographer creates modern-psychedelic-fashion artwork
Griffin Sendek | Fotos Magazine |02/10/2022
For an artist to reach the point that their work is instantly recognizable as uniquely their own is a benchmark nearly all photographers strive to surpass. In the world of photography, a thoroughly saturated medium with near-endless possibilities, having a distinctive creative vision, style and look with every photo is no easy task.
Los Angeles-based portrait photographer Lindsey Ruth has crafted a body of work that is unmistakably her own. Her portraits blend mediums and distort reality, forging unique, one-of-a-kind photographs that are a refreshing and notable contribution to the art form.
The ability to repeatedly bring that vision to life with the level of artistry and efficiency that Lindsey is capable of helps her work stand out among the vast sea of portrait photographers.
Lindsey’s journey as a photographer began in “the middle of nowhere” Sacramento, after discovering an old film camera of her parents and has been shooting ever since. Lindsey took photography classes throughout high school, and upon graduation, “I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do for the rest of my life,” Lindsey says. “So I ended up studying photography.” Lindsey studied at California Polytechnic State University and went on to work a variety of photography jobs, including a wedding photographer, in e-commerce, and as a commercial editor.
While the overall polish of Lindsey’s recent work might appear to be from years of refinement, In reality, she didn’t discover and experiment with this style until the end of 2020.
“In December [2020], I had an opportunity to rent out a studio from one of my friends that I couldn't even afford. I was like, ok, I'm just going to try it for two months,” Lindsey says.
“Having that space just like really allowed me to experiment and really like dig deep into my brain creatively and kind of see what I could come up with”
Look back at the life of any great artist — there is almost always a decisive moment, one chance opportunity, or considerable risk that fundamentally shifted their career. Taking this risk with a studio she couldn’t afford could very well be the moment that changed everything.
For Lindsey, grasping at the coattails of other successful photographers resulted in little more running around in circles producing work that never made her truly happy.
Lindsey looks back to just a few years ago. “I was seeing all these huge photographers, and you know, bought the same filter pack as everybody. I was trying to like copy them and doing what was popular because that's what I thought people wanted.”
When artists genuinely love what they create and find ways to make it their own, the work often stands out far more than copying what is popular.
“Once I started getting more comfortable with who I was and what I wanted creatively and kind of putting that work out more, is the work that I'm kind of more I've known for now,” Lindsey explains.
“I think the more I got comfortable with myself and the less I tried to fit in so much to what everyone else was doing is the work I'm the most happy with.”
Model: @emmanorts
Scrolling back to the beginning of her Instagram, there is a resounding shift exactly around December 2020, as you see all the ways in which Lindsey’s style develops as she truly came into her own.
The dark shadow cast by the ticking clock always looms overhead for artists. There is a constant sense that time is running out, and you’re not creating fast enough or good enough or making enough money, or your name isn’t plastered in a dozen magazines and that and if you haven’t found a signature style yet that it’s already far too late. Even when we know better, this feeling is often inescapable. With constant access to comparing the more successful lives of others, social media has made this daunting clock tick even louder.
Lindsey’s story is proof that none of that is true.
It can take years to find your niche and make what you’re genuinely pleased with; the necessity to define your style and produce your best work as soon as possible is horribly unrealistic.
Lindsey’s story is also a reminder to take every opportunity to grow. Within the world of art, small choices can make colossal ripples. A simple change of setting and mindset with the will to create and a little bit of risk can be the start of a new chapter in one’s creative journey.
“I feel like just like forcing myself to experiment over and over and over again, especially getting that studio space that I —again— literally could not afford at the time,” Lindsey reiterates. “It’s what really helped me to make that shift and find my own voice.”
Lindsey self describes her work as “It's kind of like a modern-psychedelic-fashion-ish, which I don't fit into any category.”
"It's kind of like a modern-psychedelic-fashion-ish, which I don't fit into any category."
Lindsey’s work can’t be shoehorned into any singular category yet remains cohesive. Her photography combines surrealism, mixed media collage, and modern fashion, often filled with midcentury vintage and fantasy elements. What she creates is broad and unexpected enough that truly anything goes; Lindsey isn’t pigeonholed into one specific category and has made a space that’s ever-welcoming to new ideas.
Model: @stephaniebotto. Lindsey hires artist and illustrators to add to her photos
While some portrait photographers shy away from lens distortion, seeking a more natural and conventional look for their models, the lens-warped look is Lindsey’s bread and butter.
“So I use a wide-angle lens, a 14mm, and I discovered that because my ex-boyfriend had it and he never used it, So I just kind of started playing with it and eventually, I like feel in love with it, and it's like how I get the really long effect in all my photos,” She ecstatically professes. “It's like my soul mate that lens. I love it so much”
The way the 14mm lens naturally distorts the body and creates the elongated and emphasized look she enjoys opens the doors for Lindsey to manipulate the subject further, warping and liquifying elements in the photo in a way that’s somehow naturally unnatural. Accentuated but almost believable that it was all captured in-camera.
“I can’t use normal lenses anymore,” Lindsey says.
Shooting with Lindsey is an experience; her presence and personality behind the camera are crucial ingredients in creating her photographs.
“I'm like yelling at my models and telling them how beautiful they are, and that usually kind of helps people relax a bit,” Lindsey says. “And my lens also just makes people look like really good and tall and so people like that. And I think that keeping people feeling comfortable and feeling good about themselves allows you to kind of do the funkier poses.”
You can tell from her photographs that her models are always having fun and the amount of trust they place in Lindsey.
“I think it's really important to establish like, a really personal rapport with my models because like I do love everyone I shoot, and they really feel like my friend by the end,” Lindsey says.
Being in front of the camera while empowering it’s also a state of vulnerability. Even for experienced models, many things can make a shoot uncomfortable. Lindsey does everything she can to make her subjects feel right at home.
“You can see in the photo when someone's not comfortable, or someone is feeling themselves. And I think you can also see when someone feels really good.” She adds that creating this sense of comfort is one of the essential parts of shooting with her.
“I don't want it to just be about the photos; I want it to be about the whole experience. I want people to have a good time. I want them to leave feeling great about themselves, and I want them to be happy with the photos.”
“So I think it's very, very important to make sure your subjects are happy and comfortable and feeling good,” Lindsey says.
What comes out of camera is only the foundation, a fraction of the final piece. The edit is where Lindsey’s photographs truly come to life.
“I think what sets it apart is, I am not so focused on the image itself, but the piece as a whole, and it's like for me, shooting it is only like a small portion of the final product,” she says.
On set, Lindsey often doesn’t even know how exactly she’ll decide to manipulate the image. How she’ll transform it into something entirely always comes in the edit. Rather when shooting, she emphasizes big emotion and strong dynamic posing that makes way for an entire slew of funky edits.
Just putting myself in my apartment that's the fun part for me. It's like seeing what I can come up with afterwards,” Lindsey describes her process. “I always try to incorporate as many different mediums into my photos because I don't think photography should just be like the image in the camera, and then you're done. I think it can be a lot more.
She doesn’t just mix mediums; she melds them into a patchwork collage or liquidy soup of psychedelic shapes and colors.
“Between like the right kind of papers and printing and collaging and incorporating a lot of real-life elements into photos and just doing things that people wouldn't typically think of,” Lindsey says.
At her desk, sitting in her comfy pink chair, editing on her matching pink iMac, is her comfort zone — one place in this big city of 4 million people she can be alone and fully express herself.
“I love just being alone and sitting on my computer and creating. And so I will just like listen to music, and I'll just start playing with the photos,” Lindsey describes how she plays around until eventually it just clicks. “I kind of get into the flow and come up with ideas, and I'll just keep playing with it until I'm happy.”
Lindsey’s best advice to new photographers is to avoid her same pitfalls.
“I feel like my biggest thing is to like, don't follow trends just to follow a trend,” Lindsey emphasizes the value of always creating for yourself first. “Do whatever feels best for you and whatever you are interested in and not just what everyone else is doing because, by the time everyone else is doing it, it's too late.”
The moment Lindsey started creating for herself, making what she wanted to make, stopped copying others, stopped following trends is when her work truly began to be noticed. More importantly, it’s when she felt the happiest and most fulfilled with her photography.
“I think that people are really drawn to towards uniqueness and people with really genuine styles who are very themselves. And if you look like all your favorite artists, they all feel very genuine, and they all have their really unique style. And I think that it's really important to do what feels right for you and not just what's trendy.”
Art is not static; Lindsey’s photography radically changed a little more than a year ago and may continue to evolve to the point that it’s almost unrecognizable from what she creates today.
One thing that will never change is her creative spark and ingenuity, the energy when shooting and the overall life Lindsey Ruth gives to every photograph.
To see more from Lindsey on Instagram @Lindsphoto and at lindseyruthbb.com