Photographer Kristin Gallegos Shares Exclusive Background to Her Disappear Here Project

Mar 22

Mar 22 Photographer Kristin Gallegos Shares Exclusive Background to Her Disappear Here Project

Kristin Gallegos is one of our favorite photographers out there these days. We initially spotted her photography thanks to her collaborations with music artists familiar and dear to us, but we were soon captivated by Kristin’s work even outside the music realm. Here at WMF, we are clearly big fans of narrative in various forms including not only music, but also lyrics, film, painting, blogging, and photography, and Kristin’s contributions as a creative director and photographer have a consistently compelling through-line of narrative.

Indeed, Kristin’s website confirms that in addition to shooting her subjects, she also “does the creative direction, makeup, hair, props, and styling” — all of which clearly add up to a formidable toolkit used to great effect in her memorable images and stories, beautifully exemplified in her four-part Disappear Here narrative series. Recently, we met up with Kristin to snap some Polaroids of her, and followed up with an eager request for exclusive context to – and future plans for – Disappear Here. Kristin graciously sent us the following insightful and detailed background, which we’re delighted to share with you here:

In 2019 I was living with a model/muse friend of mine Cora Keegan and I got the idea to shoot an homage to my former life as a classical ballet dancer. And once I started shooting that the idea was sparked for the whole series. I self-published this as a four-part book series called Disappear Here that I released in 2021 and 2022. The last one was just released in November 2022.

The books are small, soft-cover and perfect bound. I only did a limited edition of 100 books signed and numbered per installment. They are all sold out! I shot one muse per book portraying a different character and shot it as a day in the life.

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The characters were inspired by my own life, real life idols of mine, as well as characters from some of my favorite films and they were shot cinematically and all on film. The name of the series is derived from my favorite author Bret Easton Ellis from the book Less Than Zero. He says the phrase “Disappear Here” throughout. The phrase has always stuck with me.

The first book starred Cora Keegan (@corasface) as The Dancer and it was shot in LA during the pandemic. It was inspired by my past as well as famous ballerinas like Gelsey Kirkland and Natalia Makarova. The second book starred Emily Labowe (@emlabowe) as The Writer and was about a writer in Laurel Canyon inspired by Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. The third book was shot between LA and NYC and starred Chavi St. Hill (@chavisthill) as The Singer inspired by a few singers from the 60's and 70's like Betty Davis, Tina Turner and Ronnie Spector. And the final book in the series was shot in NYC and starred fine art painter Tali Lennox (@talilennox) as The Photographer. This was obviously inspired by my current life as well as some famous female photographers of the past like Sarah Moon and Deborah Turbeville. Both of them, like myself, discovered a passion for photography later in life after having other careers. I am a big advocate for doing whatever makes you happy at any age and not putting pressure on yourself to feel like you need to be successful super young or you are a failure.

The first and last books were personal past and present and the second and third books are more dream lives of mine. As I mentioned, all the books were inspired by various films as well. And there is a theme of isolation that links the series and there are no other people featured in any of them aside from the muse to really drive that point home. It was definitely a love letter to strong, independent, creative and successful women that have inspired me. And the isolation that goes with living a life outside of convention.

I did everything on the shoots for this series including makeup and hair, styling, props, locations etc. I was always shooting one-on-one with the muse. That is how I prefer to work on all of my personal projects! I am currently looking to get this published as one large hardcover book and to have a solo show with it!