Petra Collins photography style shines in Seoul with ‘fangirl’ exhibition

Daelim Museum celebrates its 30th anniversary with fangirl, the first large-scale Petra Collins exhibition in Korea. On view in Seoul through December 31st, the show presents more than 500 works that trace her journey from teenage self-taught beginnings to her role as an international image-maker. The display offers an immersive look at the Petra Collins aesthetic, defined by hazy pastel tones, soft focus, analog textures, and surreal dreamscapes that have shaped the visual language of Gen Z.

Petra Collins exhibition: a generational mirror

fangirl unfolds across three floors, combining photography, video, installation, editorial projects, and archival material. Early works such as The Teenage Gaze (2010–2015) are shown alongside cinematic projects like Fairy Tales (2020–2021), where everyday scenes turn uncanny: a mirror engulfed in flames, sisters in ambiguous intimacy, or figures submerged in glowing liquid. These juxtapositions highlight Collins’ tension between analog nostalgia and digital saturation, a central feature of the Petra Collins photography style.

The exhibition design reinforces this duality, shifting from intimate diary-like rooms with zines and personal ephemera to large-scale projections that plunge visitors into her pastel-hued universe. This rhythm mirrors the oscillation between private online scrolling and embodied physical experience.

Petra Collins photography style as cultural code

What distinguishes Collins’ vision is her insistence on elevating the figure of the fangirl from stereotype to protagonist. By centering the emotional intensity of young women, she reframes fangirl culture as a site of empowerment and creative force. Her collaborations with Gucci, Apple, Gentle Monster, and global pop icons like Olivia Rodrigo and BLACKPINK have carried her signature style into the mainstream, blurring lines between art, fashion, and pop culture.

At once retrospective and manifesto, fangirl positions Petra Collins not only as a chronicler of youth but also as an architect of contemporary visual culture. By celebrating softness, nostalgia, and girlhood, her work makes a case for taking seriously the cultural contributions of feminine subcultures long overlooked.