Petra Collins (born December 21, 1992)[1] is a Canadian artist, director of photography, fashion model and actress who rose to prominence in the early 2010s. Her photography is characterized by a feminine, dreamlike feel, informed in part by a female gaze approach.[2] She was a resident photographer for Rookie magazine and a casting agent for Richard Kern.[3][4] She has also directed a number of short films, including music videos for Carly Rae Jepsen, Lil Yachty, Selena Gomez, Cardi B, and Olivia Rodrigo. She directed the music video for Rodrigo's song "Good 4 U", which as of June 2023 has amassed over 400 million views[5] on YouTube. In 2016, Collins was chosen as a face of Gucci. She has been labeled an "it girl" by photographer and mentor Ryan McGinley and by Vanity Fair and The New Yorker magazines.[2][6]
In a Fashionista feature, Collins revealed that she had hard senior year in high school, having difficulties at home lead her to routinely skip school and ultimately failing her senior year. She turned it around however, by moving to a different method of learning which pointed her in the direction that would bring her career to fruition. After entering an alternative school, she was able to connect with an arts teacher that allowed her to find the creative guidance and freedom that she needed to begin publishing work, which she did shortly thereafter.[9]
Collins began taking pictures in high school.[7] She met Richard Kern while assisting him on a shoot, and he became her mentor.[7] Simultaneously, Collins became a frequent subject of the photographer Ryan McGinley, and would go on to become one of his proteges.[10] Collins began venturing into the art world, appearing in shows that featured her own work, and curating shows featuring her art collective, The Ardorous. Coinciding with the time of Collins's rising success in the art world, her Instagram account was removed from the platform after the artist posted a photo of herself unwaxed in a bikini. Following the removal of her account, Collins wrote an essay for Oyster Magazine, later republished in The Huffington Post, speaking out against the misogyny which informs media depictions of women's bodies.[11][12] In 2014, Collins' first solo exhibition, "Discharge", a photo series spanning between 2008 and 2014, from ages 15–21, was hosted at the Capricious 88 Gallery in New York.[13] Collins went on to publish the photo series as a book with Capricious Publishing in 2014.[14]
In 2010, Collins created the website "The Ardorous" as an online platform for young female artists. Reacting to the male-dominated art world, the group's goal is to question contemporary ideologies of femininity and recast women in positive, empowered roles. Collins has also edited a book called Babe with a foreword by Tavi Gevinson, which is a culmination of over 30 international artists selected by Petra.[15]
In 2016, Collins was named one of Dazed & Calvin Klein's 100 Creatives Shaping Youth Culture[16] and one of Vogue's 40 Creatives To Watch in 2016.[17] Collins was also named one of 30 Artists to Watch by Artsy.[18]
Collins hosted her first public art piece with Contact Photo on April 29, 2017, at King and Spadina in Toronto, Canada.[19] She completed her first featured narrative film in 2021.
In 2015, she directed a three-part documentary series entitled Making Space, which documents and explores what it means to be a young person in today's constantly changing, hyperconnected world.[20] Other projects Collins has directed include Carly Rae Jepsen's music video for her 2015 single "Boy Problems", Cardi B's 2018 single "Bartier Cardi" and Olivia Rodrigo's 2021 single "good 4 u" and "brutal".[21] She has also directed advertisements for Gucci, Adidas, and Nordstrom.[22]
In 2014 and 2015, Collins was cast in a supporting role in Amazon's award-winning TV series, Transparent.[17]
Collins has previously been featured as a model in Calvin Klein's campaign.[23]
In 2016, Petra was tapped as a new face of Gucci, and walked in their 2016 F/W Fashion Show in Milan.[24] She also starred in their 2016 F/W campaign.[25]
Collins' first book, Discharge, was published by Capricious Publishing.[26] The series was first an exhibition of the same name, hosted at the Capricious 88 gallery.[14]
Her second book, Babe, an art and photography collection featuring the work of thirty female artists from around the world, including her own, was published in 2015 by Random House.[27]
In a collaboration with Euphoria star Alexa Demie, who she first met via Instagram in 2020, Collins and Demie released an erotic photography book that reimagined fairy tales from their childhood through an erotic lens. The 152-page hardbound book collected nine different short tales accompanied by images of Demie dressed up as different mythical beings, was released by Rizzoli on November 30, 2021.[28][29]
