Images and words by Kelsey McClellan
Interview by Samantha Kern

Photo edited by Ece Yavuz

In If This Is Nice, all of the work has a soft, pastel appearance. How did color theory influence these images before capturing them, as well as during the editing process?

I’m drawn to unexpected color combinations, and this neighborhood has no shortage of them. Many of the houses are being painted grey as the area gentrifies but luckily many gems remain. While editing I tried to give them a cohesive look through decreasing saturations of certain colors while boosting others - like reds and yellows. I also only shot during the same few hours of the day on the same side of the street so the light would be similar as well.

Looking particularly at Wardrobe Snacks, much of your work feels as if it is taken in the
moment, a snapshot during a typical day, though they are heavily stylized. How did you come to want to create these images in a studio setting?

Michelle Maguire, who styled the series, had all this great wardrobe and we were feeling pretty down at the time but wanted to have fun. It was the middle of winter in Ohio - so very cold - so it was a quick shoot we did in Michelle’s living room. We shot 6 to start and had so much fun with it that we did 6 more in the spring in my living room in San Francisco.

How did the pandemic affect your process? Either with your models or when considering your still life work?

Commissioned work pretty much vanished for me for a few months, and I feel like I lost a lot of momentum with assigning editors. I used that time going on very long walks shooting If This Isn’t Nice, which wasn’t really a cohesive project at the time - just passive images I was making to pass the time and feel good.