###### photo by Sadie Jean Spezzano ## Savana Ogburn; Maximalist Queen of Collage ###### *Photographer and collage artist, Savana Ogburn sat down with Jayne and talked Rookie yearbook, the presence of camp and the freedom that comes with being crafty.* Savana Ogburn has worked with Versace, Jeffery Campbell, Trixie Mattell and has also helped define the visuals of Tavi Gevison's 2010s mag, Rookie Magazine. [![white woman lounging on hollywood sign](https://mewnfmdmrrhdiglqsppr.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/content/sav-og-hollywood-960w.webp)](https://www.savanaogburn.com/about) **Bikini Grad School:** So you started on at Rookie Magazine when you were 17? **Savana Ogburn:** Something like that, yeah. **How did you end up getting involved?** So, I was doing a lot of photography. I started shooting when I was 13 or 14. Obviously very casually kid hobby things and then, I was shooting a lot, posting things online almost immediately. When I found Rookie it gave me permission to be crafty in my work. I started incorporating collage and posting a lot online and then I got an email from Tavi one day and she had seen something I had tagged her in and I started contributing that way. **That’s so exciting** It was awesome. I was so happy. **I would have been jumping for joy.** I was. I was. It was great. I’m very grateful for Instagram. **How long did you end up being a contributor?** Until the end [from 2014-2018]. I started college so I sort of slowed down my contributions but it was a few years. It was very formative. **How do you feel that so much work that you made and put out into the world came out of your teen years?** I mean, I'm glad that I started when I was so young, and that I was able to have so much time developing a style. I feel like when I got to college, I had a huge leg up because I was able to use the resources that they had to make things that were actually in a style that I still have today, versus having to experiment and figure it out. So starting as a teenager was great for that reason. I'm really glad. I kinda feel like at this point, a lot of people don't know that work that I was putting up on Rookie. You know? Which I'm in some ways thankful for because I've grown a lot since then. [![portrait of a white woman as a devil](https://mewnfmdmrrhdiglqsppr.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/content/sav-og-devil-960w.webp)](https://www.savanaogburn.com) **Yeah, Maybe I'm just Rookie blind. I think the girls that grew up with it and the girls that have had it be such a large part of their lives are there. But, again, like, not everybody knows about Rookie.** Well, I'm the same way with [Petra Collins](https://petra-collins.com/). I look at her work, and I know everything she put up at Rookie early on. **So iconic. Rookie magazine is well known in indie circles, but Rookie's cultural resonance expands so much further than the people that know about it.** Agreed. **How do you feel that so many people don't know the source material?** I mean, I think that's just how it works and how these things go. I think it had a really positive impact on a lot of people, and I think probably in some ways, on pop culture at large. It's hard. When a lot of bigger publications started taking on that similar “talky” voice and started talking about feminism, the bigger the publication, the more hollow it would feel a lot of the time. And so that was kind of sad to watch, but that happens with every art movement that gets big. You know, you lose a little bit of the special quality it had. I think. But ultimately I'm glad that it had so much resonance with people. **Yeah. The corporatization of the Rookie is probably not the dream. I guess maybe it being small and people not knowing as much about it also makes it special and more intimate.** **Did you know at the time that you were making something that was going to have these waves? Did you know you were making something so innovative?** No. I think that I was, like, aware of how special Rookie was to me and to a lot of other people. I knew it was really cool, and I was glad to be making work and having it on a platform that resonated with me and that I trusted. I was grateful to be able to express these more crafty and feminine parts of my work in a place where everyone else was too. Like, in that bubble. But I mean, I think at the end of the day, I was making collages. And everyone's made collages. I think that whenever you look at all of the work on Rookie as a whole, it feels like this big thing. But, you have to remember that I came in on the later side. There were 2 groups of contributors. There were the OG people, and then the people that came in that second wave, which was me, my friend [Lauren Tepfer](https://www.laurentepfer.com/). I think [Hunter Schafer](https://www.instagram.com/hunterschafer/?hl=en) came on right before I did. But I had been making work inspired by the first wave, like Petra and [Olivia Bee](http://oliviabee.com/), and [Minna Gilligan](https://www.minnagilligan.com/), who I also love. But we're kind of influenced by them in a lot of ways. So then I was coming in kind of as a baby. I was like, I'm 17, These 25 year olds are so much older and cooler than me. **What is the most exciting collab you’ve worked on this year?** I was really psyched to photograph [Allie X](https://www.savanaogburn.com/alliex-polyester) earlier this year. I've been a fan of hers for a long time,since I was a freshman in college. Her visuals are very influenced by drag, and I found her music around the time that I was getting really into drag in college, which changed everything in a way. Anyway, I got to photograph her for Polyester earlier this year. I love Polyester too, they’re really carrying the torch. They're the best. So I loved doing that shoot, it was really special. It's rare at this point in my career that I'm photographing artists whose work I have a real connection to, so it was really special to work with her. And that was also my favorite shoot I've done this year. I loved the work and it felt different than what I've done before. [![white woman lounging on hollywood sign](https://mewnfmdmrrhdiglqsppr.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/content/sav-og-allie-960w.webp)](https://www.savanaogburn.com/alliex-polyester) **What are you working on right now?** I've been building my animation skill set a lot this year, and that's really exciting for me. I love certain things about photography, but I do feel like it's a means to an end in a lot of ways for me. So it's been fun to play with animation. I rewatched Fantasia, like, a month or 2 ago for the first time since I was a kid, and got really inspired. I made an animation digitally last month and then printed out all the frames and hand painted all of the frames. So that was really fun. I'm excited to do more of that. **How long did that take you?** It was only, like, 80 frames, so it took me a couple days of painting. I'm excited to, in the future, push the media that I'm working in. I love doing pop-up dioramas with photos. **I love those! No one is doing stuff like that right now.** Thanks! That's part of why I'm so excited about it, because I don't have an idea in my head of what it's supposed to look like so I feel like I'm able to make things that feel fresh, even though they’re pulling from something that's so old. **So obviously, your work is so campy. What are some unconventional ways you stay inspired with campy stuff.** I feel like camp is hard, especially right now because people will, like…. put on a feather boat and be like, this is so camp. I know. My truth at this point is that I wouldn't personally describe my work as camp, I would describe it as maximalist. I think that if it veers it to camp, I love that and I'm happy, but I feel like it's not my choice to make. I'm not approaching it, like, “I'm going to make something that is camp.” Because then at that point, is it? **Last question! If you had a dream photo collab with anybody, alive or dead, who would it be?** Oo! Tilda Swinton. No problem. I love her. **I don't know why I was expecting you to say Elvis, but, like, he’s not allowed to talk on set.** Haha, totally. But, I love Tilda, I'm just obsessed with her. I love that she's a chameleon. She seems really fun. Tim Walker photographs her all the time, and so a lot of the photos that I was seeing when I was a teenager that really influenced me were of her. So Tim Walker was a huge one for me too. Their work together has been really inspiring. Probably Tilda or Amy Sedaris.

###### All photos in artcile by Savana Ogburn