Olivia Bee: A Kid in Love

Olivia Bee discovered a love for photography as a teenager, using it as a diary and as a way of both experimenting with creative ideas and sharing moments of her life, new loves, friends, and school. Her work was discovered online by Converse, who invited her to shoot for an ad campaign. She was fifteen years old.

Seven years later, Bee’s work continues to operate on both intimate and editorial levels. These layers function in close proximity, sometimes in direct collision with one another, other times adding visual texture and depth. Experiences of just a few moments ago tumble into and inspire new creative possibilities. In this pop-up installation, Bee shares her processes of sketching and planning shoots, mapping her life and work—lists of things to do!—as well as showcasing the variety of inspirations she draws on for her images. Olivia Bee: A Kid in Love proposes a sense of the latent creativity and magic that lie within us all.

This exhibition is made possible with generous support from Iconoclast.

The accompanying publication is made possible, in part, with generous support from Converse and is part of Aperture Foundation’s First Book Initiative to publish new work by emerging artists.

Aperture’s exhibitions are funded, in part, by an award from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Charina Endowment Fund.