Columbine Goldsmith is a fashion photographer and filmmaker based in both Los Angeles and New York.
She has embraced the artist’s life since childhood, dating back to when her father gifted her a disposable camera while on a family vacation in Cabo San Lucas. After finishing her education at Wesleyan University, Columbine worked and lived throughout Europe, perfecting her photography and filmmaking techniques before returning to the States.
She began her professional photography career in New York, working for editorial and commercial clients such as Vogue, i-D, The New York Times, Dazed & Confused, and Vanity Fair, among many others.
After New York, she moved to Paris and began to experiment with moving images, quickly gaining a reputation for her beautiful films with a suggestion of the eccentric. She premiered her first short film on NOWNESS – which later made its premiere on Dazed Digital – titled “Women by Women” in the series Girls on Top. Her videos have been called “witty” or “bizarre” and they are always filled with beautiful imagery. Her protagonists are usually irreverent, particularly to the viewer, and are explored in intimate shots and settings.
For i-D’s 2015 activist issue, Columbine directed a short film featuring fashion model Nathan Westling before his gender transition. In the film, Nathan – who presented as female at the time – embodies contemporary women’s subversion of traditional gender norms. Throughout the video, he reads from The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette & Manual of Politeness to establish the narrow set of female behaviors that are deemed socially acceptable, only to illustrate his subversion of those very norms.
Columbine broke into the commercial industry after her cheeky video featuring Kendall Jenner reading from a Mean Girls-inspired “Burn Book” went viral. Since then, she has shot commercials for global brands including Google Home Max’s advertising campaign (featuring musicians Wyclef Jean and Diplo), Calvin Klein’s SS19 campaign, and the branded content film for Hermes, titled “The Audition”. She has also lent her visual style to campaigns for L’Oréal, Dior, Zara, H&M, Tiffany & Co., Clinique, Sony, Hèrmes, Longchamp, Coach, Michael Kors, Farfetch, Google, Spotify, and more.
Columbine continues to do portrait and editorial photography for magazines such as Vogue, Porter, and Elle.
