“Unposed and Unfiltered: Kate Vitali on Intimacy, Chaos, and Community”

"These Photos Aren't of You" by Kate Vitali
Published by Visigoth Invasion, NY, 2025.
Kate Vitali Interview by James Maher

Maher: Would you mind giving us an introduction?

Vitali: Hi, my name is Kate Vitali. We're at my book launch in Bed-Stuy for my book called These Photos Aren’t of You.

I was born in Brooklyn and moved to New Jersey when I was about two. My mother is an artist. She swears that since I was five years old, I started taking photos. She said that one day she picked up her old chunky digital camera from the early 2000s and she saw a bunch of photos of my twin brother. She knew I had taken them and she was looking at them and was like, ‘Oh my God, some of these are pretty good!’ And she was like, ‘Okay, this is what you're doing now.’ She harnessed my passion and my talent. I went to the ICP Teen Academy when I was 13, I was a teacher's assistant in all of high school for my photo teacher, and then I did a bunch of freelance work when I was a teenager. Then I studied photography at the Pratt Institute.

Maher: Can you tell us about the book?

Vitali: This book is moments throughout the chaos of the night. It’s the in-between moments, finding people caught off guard, not aware of having their photo taken. It’s very day-to-night, like a journey through a night out. It starts more concrete and gets a little more ‘what the fuck’ as it goes. Once you hit the white limo in the snow, things change. Now you’re walking home, you’re tired, you’re recalling your night and thinking about that dead deer you saw. It’s more psychological than I thought it would be.

Maher: How was the party?

Vitali: Oh my God. It was unbelievable. So many fucking people came. I just woke up the next morning and I was saying love was flowing out of my ears 'cause I just felt so supported, loved, and very full of gratitude. I felt very lucky to have this community. It was so, so sweet.
I don't think my work could exist without my community of other creative people. Not only are they photos of the people in the community, but they accept me and let me flourish—take me for who I am. You know, my work is such an extension of myself and my personality. I feel like when I'm being genuine with all these people around, my work is also genuine and intentional. It’s so connected to me and my personality, and everyone seems to be accepting both me and my work really well.

Maher: Do you feel a need to connect with lots of people in your life, in your work?

Vitali: Yeah, I'm a very social person. I'm very extroverted. But also, with networking and trying to make connections with people. It all ends up meshing well together.

Maher: Can you talk more about how you integrate photography into your life? Did you use a small camera for this book? Can you give us a sense of what that was like?

Vitali: I think the work especially in the past five or six years—having gone to Pratt and graduating and navigating through all the social scenes and social spaces—the type of camera that I use and the way that I use it has become so essential. And specifically, the point-and-shoot camera, which has become very trendy these days. I think it is so essential to the way I navigate through the space, having something I can fit in the palm of my hand, and being able to get that shot quickly before somebody notices it. A big part of it is being sneaky. The more posed stuff totally happens, but I think what my editor and I came to realize going through my archive was that the more interesting and emotional photos were the moments between those more posed moments, the more candid. There are a lot of blurry photos in the book. It’s this moment of half-truth; they're not trying to present themselves a certain way or know, ‘Oh, this might go on Kate’s Instagram.’ So yeah, I think having a small camera, being sneaky, having those moments in between the more posed moments, that’s like the main backbone of the book for sure.

Maher: Can you elaborate on the bookmaking process with your editor?

Vitali: Working with my editor, Quin Cunningham, was unbelievable. I've never worked with an editor before. I've never had somebody else look at my work in such a specific and intentional way, like working towards this end goal. I needed and wanted somebody to give an objective point of view to my work because I have such an intense relationship with it. It's very loaded. I wanted somebody removed from my social scene who didn’t know any of my friends. And he ended up fitting perfectly. We met together every week for eight months. He was able to give me the objective opinion that I needed, of just like, ‘This is a good photo, and other people will find it interesting.’ Instead of somebody being like, ‘Oh, this party was so fun,’ or ‘Oh, I love this person, you have to put them in the book.’ He was really, really good at curating what my eye is and what I’m interested in—which I don’t even know sometimes, you know? It’s awesome to have somebody else come in and be like, ‘This is what you’re doing, and this is what you’re interested in.’ And then I’m like, ‘Oh, duh.’ Like, thank you for putting it into words. This was separate from my work at Pratt. My teachers who I love so much, my professors, and my classmates, nobody ever gave me a critique on this work, which is why it was so important to have somebody like Quin come in.

We proofed it literally 10 times. I thought that the first proof we made, I was like, ‘Oh, we’re one away.’ And then every time we got a new proof it was like, ‘This needs to change.’ So much changed. If you looked at the first proof to now, they look so, so different. And I was still making work while we were putting the book together. The most recent photo is from December or January when we were halfway through making the book.

Maher: Can you talk about the experience of making such revealing and intimate work, of both yourself and your friends?

Vitali: With the work that's in the book, I have spent so long doing it that it gets to a point where it just feels like second nature. I’m not really thinking about it anymore—like how personal it may or may not be, or vulnerable, or any of that. It sort of is just like, I can’t not do it. Like, I have to do it. I really want to do it, which ends up feeling like I have to, in a good way.
The work I was making in school was extremely personal and extremely vulnerable. Like literally, being like naked as fuck in the Pratt gallery, in the photos. I was already aware of how it felt. You just get to a point where you’re like, ‘Fuck it.’ And I try not to take it or anything too seriously. With my community, I think everybody sort of knows what I’m doing now and that it might go on my Instagram or it might go somewhere. You know, with the more explicit photos, I tell them that I’ll save it for like my MoMA retrospective in 50 years—you know, when we’re all way older and are like, ‘Awwww, we were so young and stupid and whatever.’ Everyone has just sort of come to terms with like, if you’re around me, you’re at risk. You are subject to my eye and my gaze and my camera.

If you’re kissing around me, if you’re peeing on the street around me, if you’re doing something that falls into the subgenres of my work—they probably have a good idea that they’ll see a flash soon. Everybody should be signing a contract when they become my friend that I might take photos of you in your vulnerable moments. But you’ll be happy that I did, like 20 years from now. Which is also why I do all of this. That comes with the territory of photography—you know, time, memory, all that bullshit. It’s all very wholesome. For now, but also for later.

Maher: Even though these may be not traditionally flattering moments, they still feel flattering to me in a way, like there’s a kind eye behind the camera.

Vitali: Thank you. I hope so. Whenever I am taking these people’s pictures, it is so out of love and joy, which is such a classic cliché, you know? It’s like love and community and love for my people and this generation of creatives around me. And how I felt after the book launch, love is literally flowing out of all parts of me.

Maher: Can you talk about Instagram and social media? On one hand, it’s a life a lifeline… the lifeline. But at the same time, there's so much conflict behind the app and issues that it can cause, such as self-image. Do you mind just spit balling about that?

Vitali: I was thinking about our previous conversation when you asked if the kids were all right and I was like, ‘The kids are all right—it’s just the phones really fucked us.’ And it’s true. Instagram, especially for creative people and myself included, is so important for building that community that we were talking about and getting jobs even. I sold out of all my books this past week and I would about 75% of that was Instagram. And that’s how I built this whole persona, this ‘Kate Shoots Film’ persona—it was totally 100% through Instagram.The dark-sided underbelly of Instagram is so terrible and grim and just so bad for my brain. If I wasn’t doing what I do, if I wasn’t in this creative field, I would like to not have Instagram. The shit that we’re fed and have been fed since we were so little is so damaging. You have to catch yourself when you find yourself in that spiral. It’s such a double-edged sword because there’s so much good stuff on there and good art, great art, great people. I’ve made so many connections and seen so many things that have contributed to myself and my practice. But yeah, the evil dark side is so, so real and we’re all feeling it. This is something that me and my friends talk about all the time and we’re always like, ‘We’re gonna get flip phones and not have social media and just call each other and hang out at the park,’ And like, in a perfect world, yes—but I also need to pay my rent and get these jobs.

Like just before this somebody DM’d me on Instagram asking if I can do a freelance, and I think that’s how a lot of my other creative friends get their work sold or anything like that. It’s very good, but it’s very terrible.

And being a woman on Instagram is a whole other can of worms. Being a woman artist on Instagram is so hard. And in person, I’ve had some dudes come up to me and sort of talk down to me about my Instagram and my photographic practice in a way that feels off—and these are other art dudes, our age. They’re like, ‘Oh, your little Instagram, your little point-and-shoot camera, you’re trendy…’ you know? ‘All the girls have their film camera and their little digital cameras,’ suggesting that maybe what I’m doing is not original or whatever. But it’s like… I don’t really give a fuck. Or I try not to. The implications are extremely weird and nuanced. Something that is being more understood every day. And Instagram started as an app for photographers to share their work. I’m going back to the roots, you know?

Maher: Can you tell us about your time at Pratt?

Vitali: Pratt was the best. I rave about it to this day. Whenever somebody asks how my time was at Pratt, I just rave about it. The faculty there is amazing—the photo faculty specifically is amazing. I still keep in touch with my professors.

I started Pratt in 2019. My freshman year was right before COVID. We had a normal fall semester of foundation year, then we started our spring semester and we got sent home for what we thought was two weeks. I ended up having to do a hybrid sophomore year—which, like, art school and being online does not make any sense whatsoever.

We were mainly online about two-thirds of the time, and then the other third we were going in masked up and with maybe six or seven other people in the class. Which was weird, but I don’t even think about it as much anymore because my junior and senior years were so incredible. I learned so much; it was so fulfilling. Going to a true art school—not one inside a bigger school like Tisch or Parsons—you just get an experience that you can’t get anywhere else. Being surrounded by all creative people, people trying to do the same thing or interested in the same stuff as you, is so important. It makes you feel like, ‘Oh, I’m not crazy.’

There are people who understand me, adults who understand me and my practice. All the friends I made there are still my best friends. My professors too. It’s all love. I love that school so much, I love being in school, I love being in a classroom—it’s worth being $200,000 in debt. Everyone asks me, ‘Is it worth it?’ I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Maher: I like that you used the word ‘crazy’ because I’m guessing in the walls of Pratt, crazy is a good thing. Outside, they use it differently.

Vitali: Yeah, especially if you saw my project Richard—he looks fucking crazy. Richard was a seven-foot soft sculpture of a man that I made. Very absurd, absurdist, satirical figure for my thoughts and considerations on sexuality, gender, and the patriarchy. Just like being a woman, and all that comes with it. I lived with him for two years and brought him around, made a bunch of films, and took self-portraits with him. He was a very big part of my life. The shit I was doing with Richard my senior year was balls-to-the-wall insane. The crazier it got, the more people fucked with it. People were like, ‘She does not give a fuck. She is doing what comes to her.’ And that’s what brought people in. Richard was an icon at school. People would be like, ‘Where’s Richard? Kate and Richard. I’ve seen you before, with that doll.’ All because I said, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to walk around with this seven-foot sculpture for two years.’ And people ate it up. They loved it.

Maher: Where do you want your career to go?

Vitali: Right now, I’m very much involved in trying to get my name out there. Essentially what I do is more documentary. The dream is for people to say, ‘I want Kate Vitali to shoot this. I want her eye on it.’ I’m also trying to be more intentional with how I light things, just to have more time to think about what I’m doing. I’m not going to be 23 forever, hanging out with the same people. I want my practice to grow with me, stay consistent with my eye, and evolve with the places I’m in and the people I’m around.

Kate Vitali (b. 2001) is a photographer working in New York. Vitali was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey where she began taking photographs at the age of four. Vitali graduated from Pratt Institute in 2023 with a BA in Photography and concentration in film and video. She shoots frequently, often at the request of her friends, and is drawn to their dirty, frayed edges rather than the smiles they put on for the camera.

Vitali’s non-photographic practice includes Richard (2021-2023), a long-term multimedia project bridging soft-sculpture, film, and photography, centered on a larger-than-life, anatomically correct male doll named Richard who acted as a satirical avatar for Vitali’s consideration of power, sexuality, and the absurd.

Vitali’s work has been featured in Interview Magazine and Office Magazine and she has directed music videos. Her work has been exhibited in New York and Los Angeles.

@katevitalii
https://katevitali.com/