Elizabeth Solaka

Photographer

Maternity Photoshoot collage — Maternity collage

Approach

I am an American portrait and event photographer and artist based in New York. I’m drawn to the beauty in human relationships, the intimacy of sacred events, and the tapestry of endless city streets. It’s my hope that my subjects don’t change their pose for my camera. I want to document people in their natural states. I prioritize unedited and unfiltered photographs coming directly from the film surface over anything edited or artificially retouched.

I strive to photograph from a perspective of fascination and connection.

Earthereal Photography

San Francisco friend and poet Diamond Dave Whitaker described my work with a word he made up especially for it: earthereal. I thought this was perfect. It’s pictures suspended between the hyper-real and the transcendent. This approach is central to my practice.

Ariana Guttierez in clothes that she made herself.

I take portraits that reveal inner life. I’m fascinated by every single person I photograph. Each person is interesting, whether in context of a special place or in a distilled environment. Nature moves me, but I’m especially enamored with urban spaces.

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Weddings, Private Commissions, and Personal Milestones

I am drawn to people and sacred events and telling the larger human story: the joy and significance of a quinceañera or a bat/bar mitzvah; the vows, tears and celebration of weddings; the reverence and warmth of family at a baptism or a baby naming. These are not just events, these are moments where relationships are laid bare in their tenderness.

Woman with grandmother at a garden wedding

Sister helps bride tie wedding dress — Bride with Sister

Portraits of Artists, Actors, Authors

portrait of author Simon Van Booy — Simon Van Booy in his Brooklyn work space

Polaroid

I have completed a body of work with discontinued Polaroid 665 peel-apart film through my Hasselblad back. This photo process produces a loose, eerie and otherworldly images. Over the course of months and years, the Polaroid oxidizes and transforms, taking on a life of its own. I am no longer an artist but an observer. Often polarized sections appear when the film is peeled apart in sunny environments. These create dreamlike distortions that make the familiar strange.