Though Stillz might shoot some of the world’s most famous faces, he has no interest in showing his own. You won’t find any images of the Colombian-American photographer online, and he prefers to keep his real name out of the press. This guardedness stands in stark contrast to his subjects, whose very publicly-lived lives are captured as Polaroid portraits in his new book.
From Barcelona-based publishers Progresso, One will feature candid images of celebrities: from SZA to J-Lo, Miley Cyrus, Cardi B and Kanye West. While these images might represent the heights to which portrait photographers aspire, 23-year-old Stillz is just starting out.
Born in Miami to Colombian parents, he dropped out of high school at 17 and headed to New York. “I started filming skate videos with my friends around Miami,” he says. “Going to New York was about not wanting to follow down the same path as everyone else. I had fun doing what I was doing and I wanted to take a risk and see if it worked out.”
For his first couple of years, he scraped by in the city making just enough money through photography to pay rent on his room in Flatbush. Things would change, however, when he was introduced by a fellow photographer to a pre-stardom J Balvin. He began shooting the reggaeton singer who in turn introduced him to another Latin musician on the verge of global stardom – Bad Bunny.
The two hit it off immediately, and the Puerto Rican rapper took Stillz on tour and gave him his big directing break with the video for his 2019 single “Vete”. He would go on to become Bad Bunny’s go-to director for and has since worked on 15 of his music videos. He also recently joined the roster of Catalan production company CANADA, with whom he’s made videos for the likes of Lil Nas X and Rosalía.
But it wasn’t just Bad Bunny who was opening doors for Stillz back in the early days in his career. In New York he was also introduced to Matt Zingler, CEO of Rolling Loud – a festival that’s been referred to as “the Disney World” of hip-hop. Stillz had already started working on his Polaroid series (“I would just go to random parties where I knew there would be someone to shoot, almost like paparazzi”) but with Matt’s help, he gained behind-the-scenes access to some of the biggest names in music. “Once Matt and I met, I was off around the world at all the Rolling Loud events and this is where the project really started to create a buzz.”
And it’s not just musicians in the series. Sports stars like Dennis Rodman and Floyd Mayweather feature alongside the likes of Queen Latifah, Slick Woods and Julia Fox. “I’ve been collecting polaroids for years now and have over 2000 as of today.” For the book, however, he managed to slim down a selection of just under 300 portrait shots. What unites them is their unvarnished quality.
In a world where celebrity images are carefully posed, filtered and photoshopped, Stillz’s Polaroids have the rare quality of a moment seized by the glare of a flashbulb. “Sometimes I prefer these quick, emotionless moments. I love that each photo is unique,” he says. “I’ve been a huge nerd for collecting rare items since I was a child, and I think this is my way of collecting rare images of people.”
‘One’ is published by Progresso
Credits
All images courtesy Stillz