UFO No! was shot by Rachel Britton as part of a collaboration between Emma Tuthill and myself. The best way to describe what we were trying to come up with was a mashup of retro-futurism, 70s erotica, and straight up campy. I was familiar with Rachel’s style from her instagram, and had a pretty solid feeling she would be able to pull out what we were trying to think of.
It turned out to be so much better than we originally concepted. One of her connections offered to let us use a massive custom astronaut helmet, and another literally brought in the alien from another city! We shot the day before Devil’s Night, and she turned around the full set on Halloween morning—which was just another level of insanity. It was also incredible to see how much of her photos are “edited” in the camera. The colors and lens flares are almost completely unedited!
In fact, the whole project went so great, that it became our Christmas card for 2024. And yes…we had some questions.
About Rachel Britton
Rachel Britton graduated with a Bachelor of Science in photography from Grand Valley State University. She is published in Billboard Magazine and has exhibited at Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago, Illinois; the ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives in Toronto, ON, Canada; HUMP! Film Festival; and Natalie Seroussi Gallery in Paris, France among others. Rachel is currently an artist-in-residence at the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles, California.
