Petra Collins's Euphoria: A Stolen Vision

 

CANADIAN artistic director and photographer, Petra Collins rose to popularity in the 2010s for the dream-like, striking aesthetic of her photography sets, but also how she's able to capture the female gaze in her photographs. Ironically enough, this same aesthetic is presented in the early season of the HBO 2019 show, Euphoria, starring actress Zendaya as drug addict Rue. Directed and written by American director Sam Levinson, Euphoria stands out within its earlier seasons for its stunning, striking cinematography and lighting choices, as well as makeup to represent the youth of teenage years, but it's used even more to highlight and romanticize the euphoric sensations Rue experiences when she's high. 

Originally, Levinson had approached Collins to direct the series due to the inspiration he took from her photography, claiming that he had centered the narratives of the show around her photography. Unfortunately, Collins was not picked up for the project, however, almost like she haunted the visuals, her visual imagery and aesthetic was still very much present throughout the show. Even when Collins assumed they wouldn't proceed with her version of the show, the show was still released, but Sam Levinson's name practically covered her own.

It's not wrong to question the direction of Euphoria if it had been directed by a woman - would the same storylines and characters remain the same? If this show was framed around the female gaze, would there be the same criticisms around how the female characters are portrayed in this show?

It's a worth question presented. Even looking at Collins's works after Euphoria, such as directing many of Olivia Rodrigo's music videos, creating feature films, contributing to editorial shoots, carrying her style while still all catering to the rawness of the female gaze. 

It leads to questions the means of the women who work with Sam Levinson and what actually happens behind the scenes in terms of the collaborative process. Sam Levinson's Euphoria has both been analyzed in a positive and negative lens ever since it was first on air, making itself a worthy candidate to be analyzed in the pop culture lens. We see the representation and rawness of a teenage girl as a drug addict and how her decisions ultimately hurt those she loves most dear. We see the representation as well as the other teenagers and their social circles and how they deal with their own burdens. However, despite the rawness we see on television in terms of explicitly content such as full-on nudity and sex scenes, it brings into question the man behind the lens when it comes to sharing the narratives of these female characters, but how they're framed in his lens.

Would we still condemn the sexual content in the show if done by a woman? If Cassie's character was still controlled by a woman, would we bring into question the logistics and how Cassie functions? Can we still imagine as dynamic as a show like Euphoria with a woman behind the lens? What's the difference if Euphoria is written for the male gaze vs. the female gaze?

There's a bit of grief knowing that this vision, this world created by Collins was not truly given over to her or shared among her and Levinson. I think it shows how a lot of female visionaries and artistic directors are still in need of a fight of getting treated equally and allowing their voices to be heard in these male dominated spaces. It's sad hearing she was dropped from the project, yet her soul still haunts the show with the cinematopgraphy.