Capturing the Joy of Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish first appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in August 2019, sporting a spiked collar, claw-like nails, and an apathetic teen glare. Nearly two years later, the 19-year-old star graces the cover once more — this time shot in soft focus, wearing a minimalist button-down blouse and her new blond locks. “I feel like there’s an intimacy to [the photos],” photographer Yana Yatsuk says. “It’s a little more real to me, a little less perfect. It feels like a boyfriend would have shot it.”
Los Angeles-based Yatsuk has photographed several notable women for Rolling Stone, including songwriter and producer Teddy Geiger, Oscar winner Regina King, and the members of Haim. Her laid-back style was a perfect match for capturing Eilish’s coming-of-age era — and, by the photographer’s own account, the shoot came as naturally as it appears in the photos. “I pitched a rough [idea], but [Billie and I] seemed to really align from the beginning,” Yatsuk says. The only real challenge came from the location: Shooting at a former convent turned elementary school, Yatsuk and her team had to sneak Eilish around the back to avoid a mob of schoolchildren rushing at the singer. “We were like, ‘Should we build walls? What should we do?’ ” says Yatsuk. “Somehow, we figured it out.”
At the time of the shoot, Yatsuk had not yet seen the art for Eilish’s new album, Happier Than Ever, nor the naturalistic music videos for “Your Power” or “Lost Cause.” She attributes the stylistic similarities between the images she shot and the rest of Eilish’s work to Eilish’s own cleareyed vision. “She’s brilliant, and she knows what she wants, but she also has trust, and those two things together are really important,” Yatsuk says. “And obviously, she’s drop-dead gorgeous — it’s hard to take a bad photo.”
“She’s brilliant, and she knows what she wants, but she also has trust, and those two things together are really important.”