You may not know her name but you have definitely seen her art in your feed. Olivia at 26 made a name for herself with her project ’I fought the law’. In this collection she decided to photograph people breaking the most random and outdated laws in America. This creative idea started when a friend of hers during a photo shoot mentioned that it was illegal to have an ice cream cone in your pocket.
Who she was before you knew her name
Olivia was homeschooled in Pennsylvania where she had the space to grow her curious mind. During her teenage years she grew a fascination with fashion. She experimented things she saw on her favorite magazines by using her friends as models. Growing with an eye for color and a need to go to New York. At 18 she went to art school in New York where she found her photographic style. She discovered her unique style when she started photographing dreams and fantasy. The piece that made the click was an image of marshmallows stuffed into a pair of white nylons.
How did she break the Internet?
All of us have at least seen one of her photos even though we might not have looked at the name. The photos she created were naturally made for the internet. With her bright colors and humorous twist of reality we become hypnotized by the images. Her work became famous with a million shares and a whole community wanting to see her perspective through her camera lens.
Olivia posted the ice cream cone photo for the first time on Tumblr and the comment section exploded with more than 20,000 notes. Journalists started to reach out to interview her and so did editors to publish her series all because they found their instagram in their feed. The twist is that she still was just posting an idea and only had eight photos. The first four photos that had gone viral were replaced by better versions because they were still very premature.
From the moment she started to buzz there were people trying to copy her work even some earning well because of stolen ideas. The thing is, she didn´t mind because after all that, she got a huge book deal and was able to start a true career in art. What we can learn from Olivia is that if you have a good idea and try as hard as you can it will eventually start shining by itself.
“It’s most important to trust your ideas and execute them.” – Olivia Locher
