Furiously Happy sets Arielle Bobb-Willis’s vibrant photos on Vancouver billboards at annual Capture Photography Festival
L.A.-based artist who has photographed Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X for the New York Times breaks down the childlike creativity behind her bold images
Arielle Bobb-Willis, New Jersey (2022). Model Tianna St. Louis, with make-up by Mical Klip, hair by Errol Karadag, and styling by Herin Choi. Photo courtesy of the artist and Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire
Capture Photography Festival presents Arielle Bobb-Willis’s Furiously Happy to June 9 on four billboards along East Hastings Street between Glen Drive and Clark Drive
IF THERE WAS A FIRE in photographer Arielle Bobb-Willis’s one-bedroom L.A. apartment, the first thing she’d grab would be a book of childhood photos she took with her dad on a ’90s Barbie-themed Polaroid camera.
He gifted her the brightly coloured gadget when she was about seven years old, and would lovingly caption each photo she printed out: Arielle at MoMA, reads one of her in front of the New York City gallery; The boys, reads a portrait of her younger brothers taken several years later. Adorned with hand-drawn flower doodles, the book is one of the artist’s most cherished belongings.
It seems only fitting that a couple of decades later, Bobb-Willis now sees the world through a fixed 28-millimetre lens—but with the same childlike neon vibrancy of the Barbie Polaroid camera. Over the past few years, she has photographed celebrities among the ranks of Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, and Megan Thee Stallion for the New York Times magazine’s annual music issue; shot brand campaigns for companies from Valentino to Moncler to Acne Studios; and now has four of her images displayed on full-sized billboards along East Hastings Street as part of Furiously Happy, a public art exhibit at this year’s Capture Photography Festival.
When Bobb-Willis connects with Stir over Zoom ahead of Furiously Happy’s debut in Vancouver, she’s sitting outdoors in Vichy, France (a small town three hours outside of Paris). Through a residency with Vichy Culture, the artist is keeping busy with two shoots a day in preparation for a Portrait(s) photography festival exhibition this June.
As a gentle breeze ruffles her hair and the late afternoon sun shines down in France, Bobb-Willis reflects on how she first became hooked on photography.
“I started shooting when I was 14, when I was placed in a digital imaging course when I moved from New York to South Carolina,” she tells Stir. “I was super depressed, super isolated in a very different town. It was a very Republican, southern, all-white school kind of energy. Photography was my only friend at the time, I would say, so I got really obsessed with photography.
“And I didn’t know then,” she continues, “but adult Arielle knew that I became super obsessed with photography because it is the one thing that allows me to be super present and in the moment. With depression, you’re kind of living in the past, and photography is a really great tool to just for a couple hours think of the thing that’s in front of you, and that’s it. So from that obsession, I started shooting all the time. I always had my camera with me.”
Arielle Bobb-Willis, San Francisco (2017). Model Christean Phillip, with styling by Arielle Bobb-Willis. Photo courtesy of the artist and Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire
Eventually, Bobb-Willis moved states again to attend Loyola University New Orleans. She dropped out after one year, finding it impractical to continue studying when she already felt fully committed to photography; but stayed in New Orleans for another three, pulling artistic inspiration from the city’s dilapidated architecture, pops of colour, and constantly celebratory energy.
It was during that time period that Bobb-Willis was hit by a car while she was cycling, leaving her with completely torn ligaments in one shoulder. Her doctor ordered nearly two months of bed rest.
“That accident definitely woke me up,” she shares. “I think any near-death accident would do that to someone. And I didn’t stay bedridden for six weeks. I was in my sling taking pictures and everything—it was a little bit painful, but it was just something I had to do.”
Up until that point in 2016, Bobb-Willis had mainly been doing photo shoots for boutiques in New Orleans. The accident, grim as it may have been, marked a career-altering shift in her mindset: “I really had to think about, ‘Why am I waiting to take myself seriously with this? Why am I waiting to really take the pictures that I want to take?’” she says.
“It just showed me how short it all is, you know? So I started to really get to know myself more then, and feel really confident in myself, and not really question myself anymore—because what’s the point of questioning yourself? In art, there’s no rules, so I can literally just do what I want—and it’s great. I love it, you know? Like that’s art.”
Arielle Bobb-Willis, New Jersey (2017). Model Daquan Jeremy, with styling by Arielle Bobb-Willis. Photo courtesy of the artist and Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire
From there, her expression flourished. Her editorial and portfolio work is characterized by a rainbow assortment of bright, bold colours, playful wardrobe styling, and inventive posing, but there’s also notable tension in many of her pieces. In New Jersey (2017), one of the photos featured in Furiously Happy, Bobb-Willis colour-blocks model Daquan Jeremy’s emerald-green velvet dress, sky-blue tank-top, and oversized fire engine-red tote bag, setting him against a mauve backdrop. Most interesting is the row of multi-coloured popsicle sticks lined up on his face. Bobb-Willis found them at a thrift store, and was struck by a moment of inspiration at the end of her and Jeremy’s five-hour-long photo shoot.
“I met Daquan at a thrift store, which is funny, but he was so open to all of my ideas,” Bobb-Willis recalls. “We had such a long day, but he was great—and this was the last shot, and the light was going away. But I was like, ‘Can I just put Vaseline on your face and stick these on really fast?’ And he was like, ‘Sure!’, and then that’s how that came about. It’s a really good memory, and just a reminder that there’s so many people that have trusted me in the past to create.”
Thrift stores are a huge well of potential for the artist, where she’s sourced everything from statement clothing pieces, to a billowing bed sheet, to a rainbow hula-hoop. As for her vibrant colour palette, much of her inspiration comes from Black painters among the likes of Jacob Lawrence, William H. Johnson, Mary T. Smith, and Sister Gertrude Morgan.
“I do not dress like the people in my photos,” Bobb-Willis says with a smile. “I think I’m definitely a bit more muted.” While her personal style is on the subtle side, her eyes are drawn to colour—whether it be a person walking down the street in a bright red shirt and yellow pants, or the purple couch in her living room—and that’s what she photographs.
She notes, too, that her dad is her biggest supporter, and her younger siblings were her first muse. She draws upon an abundance of childlike qualities in her creative practice; among them are silliness, confidence, humility, curiosity, and a willingness to stumble and keep going.
Arielle Bobb-Willis. Photo by Camille Farrah Lenain
Furiously Happy marks the first time Bobb-Willis will have her works displayed on billboards, which she says has been on her bucket list for a while now. It’s a particularly joyful moment, because the photos aren’t commercial or fashion photography—they’re just Bobb-Willis’s art.
The selection of four photos—San Francisco (2017), New Jersey (2017), New Jersey (2022), and Los Angeles (2022)—was curated by Capture Photography Festival’s Emmy Lee Wall and Chelsea Yuill. The billboards are situated along a 300-metre stretch of East Hastings Street, between Glen Drive and Clark Drive, and will remain up until June 9. The same images will also be displayed at Toronto’s Davisville Station subway stop from May 1 to June 30, as part of a public art project at the CONTACT Photography Festival.
Throughout our conversation, Bobb-Willis radiates gratitude for where she is in life today. There are big things in the pipeline for the photographer; she’s visiting Vancouver for the first time to host an artist talk on April 15 for Furiously Happy, and her first book, Keep the Kid Alive, comes out in October. As for the most rewarding part of her career?
“Getting to wake up and do whatever I want to do every day,” she says. “I think having my time be my own is a beautiful thing. Having a home that is my own is a beautiful thing. I think that’s such a big deal, is looking around my apartment and seeing a couch, and my bed. I never thought I would have a comfortable place for me to stay. I think for a lot of artists, it’s hard to get your footing. And the fact that I even have a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles is insane to me. Looking around my apartment and seeing that everything in here is because of my brain, and my mind, and my ideas is just such a huge accomplishment.
“For myself as a Black woman, with no one in my family who knows photography at all or anything, having my ideas allow me the time to just be slow, and to get to know myself, is just…” Bobb-Willis pauses for a moment. “I get emotional, because photography really is the best relationship I’ve ever had in my whole life. I talked to my therapist and she said, ‘It sounds like photography is the healthiest relationship you’ve ever had in your whole life,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, it is.’ It never disappoints me. It makes me feel the most, the most. I always get something out of it every time. It gives back what I give to it.”
If the explosive displays of colour, poignant emotions, and radiant expressions of life she captures are any indication, Bobb-Willis undoubtedly pours her heart and soul into her craft. 
Arielle Bobb-Willis, Los Angeles (2022). Model Cen Orismekusa, with styling by Arielle Bobb-Willis. Photo courtesy of the artist and Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire.
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