NYC

Euphoria Dance Party /  by Liz Brown

On Saturday night, well past my self-imposed bedtime, I photographed a Euphoria-themed dance party. Partly photo-booth, partly candids, I literally danced through the evening. The night combined humans, glitter, dancing, and a drink called “fuck Nate Jacobs”—what could you not like about it?! These are some of my favorite shots from the night; check out more at If You Know It, Sing It’s site.

This couple were newlyweds and honestly I’m obsessed. So cute.

Honestly, it’s giving me tumblr vibes and I’m here for it.

6 months in New York /  by Liz Brown

Today marks 6 months in New York. Well, more like 6 months and 2 hours. Kassie and I arrived at Lindsay’s apartment in Brooklyn around 10pm on the night of July 9th.

I didn’t realize that until this moment—as I wrote that date—that it’s the same date Taylor Swift wrote about in “Last Kiss” (don’t worry—I’ll update this link to Taylor’s Version as soon as it debuts):

“That July 9th:
The beat of your heart—
It jumps through your shirt.
I can still feel your arms,
But now I’ll go sit on the floor,
Wearing your clothes.
All that I know is
I don’t know how to be something you miss.
I never thought we’d have a last kiss.
Never imagined we’d end like this;
Your name, forever the name on my lips”

My July 9th felt very different—an adventure, an arrival—but it also felt similarly because leaving and breaking up are both different sides of the same coin of grief. But sometimes endings look strangely like beginnings. It’s why I have a sunrise and sunset mirrored on my finger. Even in the beauty of a beginning is the necessary grief of the parallel ending. 

And the last 6 months have been this dance of loss and gain. Loss of sleep, gain of friends. Loss of one job, gain of another. Losses and gains of weight and stress and money. I’m learning to value the calm and the steady: the fresh air and a friendly face and a sunny day.

No choice or change is without loss or opportunity cost, but you have to decide what’s worth it, even if you don’t know the ending. Because you never really know the ending. All you can do is factor in everything you know and lean into the feeling of what you hope for, believing it exists. This is true for love, for adventures, for new cities and new dreams. 

So I think all I can truly ask myself after 6 months is: has it been worth it? And all I can reply is the cliche of a resounding YES.

*And I’m posting this a day late because I watched the new season of Search Party and had dinner with friends and forgot about posting this, which really speaks more to the goodness of life than any photo, don’t you think?

photo by my friend Michael on a good day

Harryween, Night 1: Fan Fashion /  by Liz Brown

If you’ve been around here for a minute, you know I’ve document Harry Styles’ fans’ fashion at almost every single New York show (night 1 and night 3). But the Harryween show: that was my Met Gala. I have been looking forward to this night for SO long and I definitely went a bit overboard, documenting over 200 (!!!) looks!

With each show, I’ve organized the photos in different categories, mostly for my own sanity. For this show, I arranged them in correlation with the song titles from Harry’s two albums. Enjoy!

P.S. If you’re in this post, details on how to obtain your image are at the bottom. Thank you!

1. Meet Me in… Madison Square Garden

Imagine being the person Harry dressed like, because I cannot imagine.

2. Sign of the Times

3. Carolina

4. Two Ghosts

5. Sweet Creature

6. Only Angel

7. Kiwi

This category/song title I took a little less literally and based the section on the line about the black dress—so the looks are black dresses or all-black outfits.

8. Ever Since New York

This section I made about creativity and nostalgia and the way we will all feel looking back on this someday.

9. Woman

Yes, I stretched this category a little, but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. I took the “romantic comedies” line and just turned it into a section of movie-and-character-inspired outfits!

10. From the Dining Table

This is very literal. These costumes are things you’d find on a dining table. By that I mean food.

1. Golden

2. Watermelon Sugar

I put all the Grammy’s inspired looks here (from the “Watermelon Sugar” performance) and the watermelon and strawberry looks.

3. Adore You

First of all, I am obsessed with this group “Adore You” costume. Second, I really ran with the fish theme and included our other “under the sea” outfits here, too.

4. Lights Up

5. Cherry

We had a lot of fun pink outfits, so while, yes, I know cherries are mostly red, I felt like it still sort of worked and all felt cute together. And when you listen to “Cherry” it really feels like a pastel song.

6. Falling

They made this replica outfit to look like something worn at the real Los Angeles Beachwood Cafe!

Fall outfits… the song “Falling.” Yes, this is a bad dad joke.

The yellow suit outfit is a replica of what Harry wore to the 2020 BRIT Awards where he performed—you guessed it—”Falling.”

7. To Be So Lonely

Is anyone more lonely than superheroes and superstars?

8. She

9. Sunflower, Vol. 6

10. Canyon Moon

11. Treat People With Kindness

This category sort of became a catch-all, especially for groups, but that doesn’t mean your costume wasn’t amazing! That just means your energy and care for each other and kindness was what shone through the most.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you!

If you let me take your photo, thank you for trusting me. If you’re simply reading this, thank you for gifting me with your time. It’s our most irreplaceable individual resource and it means a lot to know you’d spend some of yours with me and my stories and my art.

If you see your face in this post and would like a copy of that photo, please email me at estorie@outlook.com. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting cheerful and excited dm’s! Send away—I love meeting y’all! But for more logistical things like getting you your photo, email is more effective: dm’s get buried super easily and we don’t want that. Let me know which photo is you and I’ll send it to you as soon as I can! Feel free to use it on social media, but please caption-tag me (@estorie on Instagram, @estorieco on Twitter, and @estoriethegirl on Tik Tok—yes, I wish bots didn’t snatch my matching handles, too). Please don’t crop, edit, or otherwise change the images. If you want to use them anywhere else (publications, promotional material, anything published online or in a physical form, etc.), just shoot me an email and we can talk details. Sound good?

If you enjoyed this post and would like to work with me, the same is true. Just send me an email: estorie@outlook.com! I’m available for articles, portraits, live music shoots, street style—and whatever other ideas you might have.

If you enjoyed this post (start-to-finish, all of this—shooting, culling, editing, writing, uploading—took about 14 hours!) and would like to support me as an artist, my venmo is @estorie! Thank you!

12. Fine Line