Fresh-faced, beautiful, and eight months pregnant, photographer Anna Ottum (b.1987) greets me in the sun-filled Baldwin Park home she shares with photographer husband, Parker Stewart. We are both struck by her soon-to-be newborn son’s parentage—she, the mother is a documentary photographer and Stewart, the father, is a landscaper photographer—just exactly as her parents were when she was born.
Ottum’s parents met in the photo program at the University of Oregon and had careers that focused on photography: “My dad went into nonprofit art and my mom ended up working for the NEA.” Her childhood was rich with artistic inspiration and freedom. “I desperately wanted to be a painter. My dad put my sister and I in an arts program twice a week with Margarita Leon—the coolest of the cool art teachers in Portland at the time—and she let us come in and explore different mediums.” But growing frustrated at not being able to create what she was envisioning, Ottum found herself drawn to photography and began following “this nostalgic thread of documenting my youth and my friends.”
Interestingly, it is this body of work that has almost subliminally inspired her upcoming show “Dress Rehearsal” opening this Saturday, Aug. 17 at the Montgomery Street nonprofit art gallery Cleo, the Project Space. More on that in a moment ...
In her pre-Instagram and pre-TikTok teenage era, Ottum was sometimes depicting herself (“we’d pass the camera around a little bit”), but was mostly capturing images of friends who were artists and musicians. “When you’re young, you just think everything you’re doing is fascinating.” Using her parents’ cameras and the darkroom at her school, these images continued into college as her friends began to tour with their bands. Her portfolio to get into art school documented a tour in Alaska, a mixture of “overwhelming” and stunning landscapes and portraiture.
After graduating with a BFA in interdisciplinary visual art from the University of Oregon, it was the Alaska images and the depictions of her youth in the Northwest that spurred her early recognition in New York City. Moving there, she had planned to be a photo editor or photographer’s studio assistant, but the freshness and contemporary vitality of her personal work spoke to the retail market of the early 2010s and she landed a prestigious contract with Urban Outfitters—think images of beautiful girls on the beach or hiking though the forest or playing guitars. Ottum attributes her early success to the perfect intersection of timing and contacts: her artist friends knew her work and recommended it to their bosses and art directors while, at the same time, she was immersed in the portfolios of many “big name” contemporary photographers in her role as creative manager for the boutique licensing agency, Trunk Archive. Today published in the New York Times, Interview Magazine, and hired for advertising campaigns by Nike, Macy’s, and Neiman Marcus, to name just a few, she acknowledges that, initially, she “got very lucky.”
Throughout her successful commercial career, Ottum has enjoyed a lot of artistic autonomy and control and has always carved out time for personal work. She has documented cheerleaders, the low country, truck drivers, nail artists, arctic explorers, pop stars, and bull riders with distinct intimacy. Savannah audiences may be most familiar with her work focused on the sub cultures of rodeos around the country; Arts Southeast’s Arts and Culture IMPACT Magazine featured images of gay rodeo culture in their most recent issue. Ottum gave up her New York studio during the pandemic and has since made Savannah home. Most recently, her eye has been trained on the aspirations of young dancers in our community.
Cleo, the Project Space’s brilliant curator Jeannette McCune says of the show “Dress Rehearsal” that “the dueling melodrama of both self-assured movement and insecurity is contextualized throughout every aspect of life. These moments include dressing up, with hair and makeup that mark some desire for maturity, as well as signal play with identity on the cusp of adolescence and adulthood. The girls’ movements and postures on the stage and off demonstrate a discovery of both confidence and fragility.” McCune encouraged Ottum to make new work—all 30 images in the show were taken within the last three months—while the nonprofit gallery’s honorarium gave the artist the freedom to create without the worry of “what’s going to sell?”
As a mother who once drove her 12-year-old daughter 60 miles down Interstate 95 to return a skimpy bikini bought without my permission, I admit to initially bristling at some of the imagery. Ottum agrees that the discomfort is part of the dynamic of this work. She recalls the images she took of herself and of her friends as young girls. “I think I was navigating how I felt at that age, looking back at photos that I didn’t think were ‘sexy’ at all at the time. So, these girls, even if they think they are ‘sexy,’ they don’t really know what that means.” She continues, “I have these intense memories of my dad (because my mom died when I was young) saying, “You can’t wear that out of the house,” or “Those heels are too high.” I was so confused by it. Because I thought the shoes were cool, and these were the pants that everyone was wearing. I just felt young and fun.”
Ottum met with the children and their mothers in their own homes, wanting the girls “to show me their world. The vibe is playful. They get to dress up in costumes and put makeup on and dance around. It’s a theme of performance for the camera.” Her images are of the youngsters both rehearsing and performing for her, and of the literal dress rehearsals for their on-stage performances. “It’s exploring the classic ‘to be a woman is to perform’ feeling, but they’re so young, it's just playful at this point.” The four-year-old puts on makeup not because she thinks it will make her more beautiful, but because it’s just fun to paint her own face.
It's this discomfort of worldliness and innocence that makes the show so disquieting and so powerful. Authentic and thoughtful, Ottum has curated her work with an eye to being non-exploitive. She says, “I tried my best to explain to the moms that I also feel protective of the girls. I would never use an image that would embarrass or make them feel uncomfortable.” Her show’s publicity image of 17-year-old Aubrey lying on the grass “is such an innocent moment” and particularly reminded her of the photographs of her own teenage friends lying in the sun. “I don’t ever want her to appear more mature than she really is, or for her to feel too vulnerable."
Again, quoting McCune, “Youth, a recurring subject of Ottum’s work, embodies a steadfast hold on dreams and blind desire, an impermanence that she celebrates through nostalgia. It is an anticipatory nostalgia experienced in fragrant grasses and sun-soaked portraits. These carefree moments of flexible discovery are paired with dancing and the discipline that’s required for such acts. It is under the gaze of both sets of imagery that the viewer is invited to reflect on their own dualities, both past and present.”
The opening reception for Anna Ottum’s “Dress Rehearsal” is Saturday, Aug. 17 from 6-9 p.m. at Cleo, the Project Space, 915B Montgomery St. The show hangs through Sept. 28 and the gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Follow Ottum on Instagram @annaottum and find out more at www.annaottum.com. Follow Cleo the Project Space, a nonprofit arts organization highlighting underrepresented artists and providing each with financial support in their practice, @cleo_the_project_space and at www.cleotheprojectspace.org.
