Tumblr Didn’t Ruin a Generation, It Created One: Introducing Anna Koblish

The Tumblr generation did not disappear, it grew up and became the people creating culture. The photographers, creative directors, and visual architects behind the images shaping fashion, music, beauty, and internet aesthetics today. Anna Koblish is one of them. With a visual language rooted in Tumblr-era romanticism, Hollywood glamour, pop culture, makeup artistry, and the hyper-curated aesthetics that raised an online generation, Koblish has built a world distinctly her own. From Jeffrey Campbell campaigns that transport you straight back to 2010s Tumblr to commercial work spanning fashion, beauty, and celebrity, her work exists at the intersection of nostalgia, ambition, femininity, and image-making. In this conversation, we speak with Anna about growing up online, suburban creativity, Tumblr’s lasting impact, photography, music, makeup, LA versus New York, and what it means to evolve from photographer into full-fledged world builder.

TAYLOR: You grew up in a suburb just outside of Philadelphia, and I wanted to hear a little bit more about your experience growing up there, finding your way as a creative, and how you feel it shaped you.

ANNA: Growing up in the suburbs, I quite enjoyed it. I’m the first in my family to create art for a career. My family is deeply creative, I’m realizing as I get older, especially my dad. He works in medicine and biotech. But growing up in our house, my mom would always find drawings and paintings on his notes from college and hang them around the house. I feel like there was always a door open to creativity, but it was always through this alternative lens of: How can it be practical? How can you make a living off of it?

I was never going to be allowed to go to school for fine art. I had to go for something that was a skill.

Photography kind of became my first real form of artistic expression, just through viewing images on Tumblr and sites like Tumblr all the time and wanting to recreate the photos I was reblogging. That’s how I became proficient in editing. I would try to copy what I would see and learn the techniques.

I wasn’t outside all the time. If I had grown up in a city, I probably would have been outside more, which maybe would have benefited me in a different way. But growing up in the suburbs, there was a lot of internet and so much space to think. You find yourself more online, which I think is really the genesis of my career.

TAYLOR: Yeah, I have a theory based off the people I’ve interviewed and the way I grew up as well. I grew up in a smaller place. I feel like doing so can isolate you in a way. You have a lot of time to reflect, go on the internet, and go on Tumblr. I feel like, in a way, it does make you more creative. But then, on the other hand, if that’s not really necessarily the norm where you grew up, it can be isolating if your peers aren’t doing it.

This leads me to my next question. What advice would you have for younger people who want to pursue creative endeavors in environments where their peers maybe aren’t as accepting or bully them for being more creative?

ANNA: I kind of got lucky because I want to say I didn’t care what people thought, but I did. I definitely did about certain things. But for the most part, I always made it everybody else’s problem when I liked something. I was a bit bullish in that way. I don’t want to say I would bully people, but I would be like, “Why don’t you like this? Why don’t you know what this is? Like, get on my wave.”

Because that’s my personality. But there was a big stretch in high school where I didn’t really pursue anything really creative. I kind of wanted to be a bit more normal. And I think that’s okay.

If you have to put something on the back burner because you want to have an easier high school experience, I would say do it. Life is long. You can return to it later. But if there’s something inside of you that really is screaming at you, you have to follow that impulse. Always. Always follow your gut and your instinct. I think that is the best thing you can do for yourself at any time, whatever that is.

But general advice: I think you have to look at the market and the industry you want to enter, and survey who is successful and who’s not by your standards. Define what that even means for you. Whose work you like and whose you don’t, and then try to track their career by seeing what they did or how they started. Reach out to them and identify how you want to land. That’s how I started out. You have to develop a visual language. I developed mine through copying, through trying to teach myself how to edit the way photographers I liked edited, and how to shoot that way. I’m still doing it to this day.

That’s how I learned; I learned by myself. So, that would be my advice.

TAYLOR: That’s great advice. Who were some of the artists or photographers that first brought that interest in photography out for you?

ANNA: The obvious is Petra Collins.

TAYLOR: That’s a great example.

ANNA: But that’s everybody, because she was just so prolific at the time, and it felt very romantic and alluring when you’re a young girl. It’s hard to think about a person. I think there was more so this desire to capture in general because I loved images so much. I feel like I’ve done things a little bit backwards, which I guess is the ADHD way. I just kind of did it.

TAYLOR: Has there been a moment along the way where you felt, “Wow, I’m really making it as a photographer and as an artist?”

ANNA: There’s been many moments. As I’m doing this for longer and getting older, moments come at different stages depending on what I want to accomplish at different times. My struggle has been being present in all of those moments instead of thinking about: What’s the next moment? What’s the next milestone? How can I keep going? I want more, I want more, I want more. Because that’s how I am. It’s been difficult to really feel like I made it when there’s still so much more I want to do. I think it’s a good and a bad thing. I think it’s good because it pushes you forward and means you’re ambitious, but it’s bad because you’re not giving yourself credit for all the work you’ve done to get to those points. There have been so many stages.

This is going to sound really silly, but when I hit 10,000 Instagram followers back in 2020 or 2021, that was a big deal for me because I set that goal. I felt like all the marketing I had done was paying off. I was really getting myself out there because that was my intention. It was all very intentional. Then, getting my first commercial job with Steve Madden; that was a big one. That came probably two years later. Then probably shooting the Vans campaign a year after that. Being flown out to LA, that felt really big. A first was being trusted to creative direct for Athena Club. Directing my first commercial with Schwarzkopf featuring Dove Cameron was a big moment. Moving to LA was huge. Shooting my first celebrity was huge. By the time this comes out, I shot PinkPantheress for a magazine cover.

TAYLOR: That’s amazing!

ANNA: The cover comes out in two days, and that was a really big recent moment.

There are just constant milestones. That’s how I operate. There are certain things you want, and then when you get them, there’s just more.

TAYLOR: Absolutely. I think I share that as well. I feel like that’s also part of the industry, you know? Sometimes you don’t even get that beat to fully bask in what you’ve done because the industry is like, What’s next? What more can you give us? But I do think it’s important to take those moments and say, “Well, five years ago, I could have never imagined that I would have this amazing opportunity — and I did it.” It’s also important to try to have those moments of realization.

ANNA: I think what really helps is setting those goals, writing them down, and giving yourself something to work toward. It gives you something to cross off the list.

TAYLOR: Absolutely.

ANNA: I’m kind of in a phase of redefining what’s next, which is interesting.

TAYLOR: I discovered you from the Jeffrey Campbell campaign that you creative-directed and photographed alongside Kennedy Smith’s styling and Kayli Rachelle’s makeup artistry. It honestly blew my mind. I’ve had a Tumblr since seventh grade, and I feel like it has been so instrumental in raising me as an artist. You perfectly captured the essence of what being on Tumblr during the 2010s was like.

ANNA: Oh, that’s so nice.

TAYLOR: No, it’s really, really amazing. How would you say Tumblr had an impact on you? What are some of the images, themes, and trends?

ANNA: For better or for worse, that app really introduced all of us to aesthetics, concepts, music, and disordered eating habits that have stuck with us for a really long time. Tumblr was just a hub for what was already going on in the world that young people had access to and were projecting. It was like a vessel. It was just collecting and shooting back out the information that was happening at that time. We’re still seeing the effects of Tumblr now.

TAYLOR: Absolutely.

ANNA: It comes in waves, and different things are being pulled from aesthetically.

I mean, I kind of feel like I got to rewrite history a bit with that Jeffrey Campbell shoot. Even if it wasn’t like that for me, that’s what I imagined that era being like, mixed with my editing style and the work I’m making now. That was a really proud moment because that was really for the middle-school version of me. She probably would not believe it.

TAYLOR: As soon as you see them, you really are transported back into that time. It was truly a testament to the culture that sprung from Tumblr.

ANNA: Absolutely.

TAYLOR: Aside from photography, you post a lot of makeup looks you create for yourself. Those are honestly really amazing. You’re not a one-dimensional artist. You’re creative all around. I wanted to ask you about that because, with certain art forms, sometimes we do them in isolation. For makeup, do you usually only do that in the house, or do you ever go out with these makeup looks on?

ANNA: Thank you for mentioning that. Posting makeup is a very new thing for me. Makeup is my hobby, if you can call it that, a capitalistic hobby. I know everything about that world. I really love it; it brings me a lot of joy. I’m not going out of the house after I do that. My day-to-day makeup looks when I go out are very simple. I never wear makeup every day. I thought I was going to be a makeup artist before I was going to be a photographer. I’ve been doing makeup with photo for a really long time. The first five years of my photo career, I didn’t really introduce it that much. It would leak through a little bit. My goal was to be a photographer, and it didn’t really feel like it fit. When I moved out of the city and back home to my parents’ house, that was the beginning of this regression back to how I was as a kid. I was in my childhood bedroom in the suburbs, reconnecting with that part of myself and regaining confidence. It’s really more of a meditative relaxation thing for me. It’s a good creative practice. Even just hearing myself say that out loud is interesting because I never really considered myself to be a multihyphenate. I think, going forward, I would really love to create more synergy between the two things. I think I will. Getting a reference from a physical medium like an image, then applying my own spin on it, and then making another image out of that is very interesting to me.

TAYLOR: I find that interesting, too. I understand what you mean by it kind of being like a meditative process.

ANNA: It’s also laborious as hell. It’s very detail-oriented.

TAYLOR: As artists, sometimes it’s easier just to create art to get an idea or a feeling from inside of you outside of your body. I wanted to ask you if there was anything you find yourself constantly gravitating toward or drawing inspiration from in terms of makeup or photography.

ANNA: I would say old Hollywood movies, the studio system, and the ’60s, which I’ve been researching a lot. I’ve watched a lot of old movies, and I’m just blown away by the color and set design; the grandeur of it Right now, my major reference pool is the ’90s, which will never go away. That’s fundamental to who I am. I was born in ’97, so I was at the tail end of it, but there’s just something ingrained in the era I grew up in. Not Y2K. Something I’ve been really inspired by is Fosse and choreography. I was even thinking today that I’ve always been obsessed with music and dance. I think there’s this whole world of grand set design and glamour that I’ve been missing in my work. There’s so much I want to do and pivot toward. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what I’m capable of. I think what’s really pushed me is building that foundation of people knowing who I am. I’m working a lot and making money. I am stable, and once I have that, then the evolution can seep in. Because I’m freelance, there are moments of: you have it and then you don’t. So, it’s going to be a lifelong process.

TAYLOR: Yeah, absolutely. So, I know that you went to college in New York. You went to Parsons, and now you live in LA, right?

ANNA: Yes.

TAYLOR: I wanted to ask you how both cities, on their own, have impacted you and your art. How old were you when you first moved to LA?

ANNA: I moved to New York when I was 18. I left when I was 25. New York is where I started, so I’ve got to give credit where credit is due. I started my career there, and that’s where it all began. But I don’t really know how New York affected my work. I’m much more interested in how LA has affected it. I shot all of my big campaigns in LA. Since moving there last August at 27, my work has changed so much. There’s more life; there’s more in the way that I experience life. There’s space; there’s beauty; and there’s a lot of nature. The sun and the beauty; being able to be outside all year round; driving and finding gorgeous places to shoot; and just being in a place where everybody wants to work, those are the things that I’m really trying to integrate into my work. Learning about LA’s history and Hollywood is something that I really want to get more educated on. I think that’s what makes LA special in a lot of ways. There’s just a lot of history there that is pertinent to film and art.

TAYLOR: Yeah, definitely. So, you would say that LA is more inspiring for you and your art than New York was?

ANNA: Yeah, I would say so. I think some of that will change. But for right now, I need to be outside, in nature, in the sun.

TAYLOR: Yeah, I totally get that. I know we talked about Hollywood glamour and all of the things that come along with that, like the colors and the looks. Have there ever been times where music really inspired you as well?

ANNA: Music has always inspired me. Directing these videos is something I wanted to do for probably longer than I wanted to be a photographer. It’s just taking me a bit longer to get there or to use music in motion. When I listen to a song, I see movements. I see camera angles, and I see colors. Music is very visual for me, as it is for many others. It’s not unique to me.

TAYLOR: Who are some of your favorite musicians now, or when you were first starting your career in photography?

ANNA: I’m kind of in a weird spot with music. I don’t really feel like I have a favorite artist. I’ve listened to a lot of old music from the ’70s and ’80s, so I don’t really think I have a favorite current artist, presently. I feel generally pretty disconnected from music right now. I will say I love to analyze pop girls; their career choices, their images, and the way they build their sonic and visual worlds. I’m definitely paying attention to them and watching what they do just because it’s interesting to me. I think it would be really cool to construct a pop star. As a photographer, director, and even a makeup artist, those are the people who really create those images. So, I pay attention to a lot of choices that are made and the projected image.

TAYLOR: I feel like that’s a really great point, actually. When you look at individual artists, they all created their own world within this umbrella of what a pop star is. If you think of Zara Larsson, you think of these neon colors and maybe a tropical vibe. But if you think of someone like PinkPantheress, especially when she released her first EP, it was darker tones with a more melancholic vibe to it. I feel like it’s really interesting that, as a photographer, you’re thinking of movement and all these ways in which their craft affects yours.

ANNA: Yeah, and where I would fit into a project like that. I admire who is creating these images that carry singers and pop stars into their stardom through their work. If they go hand in hand, they’re one visual medium with the star. They go together.

TAYLOR: Definitely. I know we’ve talked about leaning more into your makeup artistry, creating more from other mediums, and music videos. I wanted to ask you how you envision your future and what you’d like to accomplish as time goes by.

ANNA: Even just in this conversation, I’m sure it’s clear that there is so much I want to do. I’ve always felt like I could really do anything, which is amazing, but you also can’t do it all at one moment. How do you build momentum doing one thing? There’s an ebb and flow, and just time. Efforts build on each other. At one point in my life, I really wanted to direct movies. At another point in my life, I wanted to be a creative director. At another point, I wanted to have my own makeup brand. I would love to be a well-known, prolific photographer with a cult following and a strong visual world to live in. Part of me kind of feels like all of those things might be possible; are possible. Some of them feel further away than others. Getting better at learning how to be great behind the camera and sense emotion is something that I really want to get good at over the next few years. Then, with stills, I want to expand my world. I want to move more toward personal work and build a strong project around girls and joy. Maybe there’s a book and a show and all of that. But those are my immediate goals. I don’t know where they’ll take me.

TAYLOR: I think it’s amazing that you have so many different goals and that you don’t confine yourself to one thing. I think you’re on your way to accomplishing all of those things, realistically. Immediately when I found your work, I found it very inspiring and very unique.

ANNA: Thank you.

TAYLOR: I wanted to ask you if there was anyone specific you would love to work with in the future that you haven’t yet?

ANNA: We all have our lists of artists we want to work with, whether it be musicians, hairstylists, or stylists. At this point in my career, I’ve recently just welcomed whoever comes in the door; whoever comes into the inbox. I’m excited to work with each individual person because they all bring their own set of challenges or ideas. I welcome that; it excites me. It’s more about the teams I’m building and what we’re building. There are DPs, colorists, makeup artists, stylists, agencies, production companies, and brands I want to work with. I love shooting athletes. I want to shoot real people, too. I put out a casting a few months ago looking for faces that aren’t models. I’m still going through those submissions and planning the projects and shoots.

TAYLOR: I think there’s a lot of character that can come across in photos when you focus on regular people as opposed to celebrities sometimes because they already have these worlds and images they’ve created around themselves. I feel like that’s a really good balance to find.

ANNA: Absolutely, yeah.

TAYLOR: I wanted to say thank you so much for finding the time to speak with me. I found this conversation really inspiring and enlightening. I’m definitely happy to hear that you’re planning on making so many more avenues for your art.

ANNA: Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Lovely conversation. It was so nice meeting you.

In Conversation with @annakoblish & @taylormchamplin