About

Elizabeth Solaka Photography - New York City

Origins

I was born in the experimental, modernist landscape of Lafayette Park in downtown Detroit, the youngest in a house full of siblings, artistry and noise. The 1970s were wild and free, and so was I. By the time I was five, I was roaming the neighborhood alone, eating a full deli breakfast at Zukin’s before walking myself to school, where my running tab was quietly settled between Mr. Zukin and my dad.

I taught myself to swim at the pool on the roof of the parking structure nestled between two Mies van der Rohe towers. I checked out books from a traveling bookmobile called Reading Is Fun. And sometimes, a swimming pool trailer rolled into the neighborhood.

My mother, a ballerina, transformed our basement into a ballet studio, where a young Romanian teacher, Iacob Lascu, (literally) first found his footing in the United States. He would go on to choreograph for Marygrove College and spend twenty years producing The Nutcracker with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

She later ran a thriving New York–style cheesecake and catering business, and eventually owned The Soup Kitchen Saloon, a premier Detroit blues bar. As a pre-teen, I once sat down at the piano beside the legendary Willie Dixon and played a duet while people, including my own mother, danced on the tables.

My father, a Chaldean born in Iraq, was an architect before joining his father’s Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe — a New York–style gourmet grocery store filled with premium meats, caviar, and the daily New York Times.

Motown artists like The Spinners and The Temptations often stopped in. Once, The Spinners handed me a giant fabric rubber band in honor of their song “Rubber Band Man.” I spent hours sitting on the checkout counter, feet swinging, happily eating King Cones from the freezer while my grandmother, Peaches of blessed memory knitted nearby and greeted the regulars. She carried the day’s cash home every evening.

Through a curious system of bartering and trading between my dad, the local jeweler and the venues’ house manager, I found myself with access to house seats and VIP areas for the most iconic concerts of the era. As a child, I saw Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, The Cure, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and others. These shows shaped how I would later frame the world through a lens.

I was drawn to acting and directing as a child, but when my older sister decided to pursue acting professionally, I instinctively shifted toward visual art. In high school, I won multiple awards in graphic design. At Smith College, I studied Economics with an emphasis in Art History and French.

It wasn’t until after college that I took my first formal photography course at the Boston Architectural College. There, I studied under Todd Gieg who became both a mentor and a lifelong friend. (To this day, decades later, I still share photos with him and he still critiques my work.)

Once I held my first Hasselblad in my hands, something shifted. My eye sharpened. My purpose clarified. My art, and soon, my wedding career, took flight.

In the early 2000s, for seven consecutive years, I was the all-access photographer for Detroit’s Comerica Cityfest. It was a highly competitive role, one I earned through interviews and persistence. Through that lens, I had the privilege of photographing legendary, emerging, and genre-defining artists.

In the late 90s, I held a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and later studied at The New England School of Photography and Oakland Community College under the extraordinary Rob Kangas.

I have lived in Paris, Berlin, Boston, Northern California, Massachusetts, and Los Angeles — but aside from Detroit, New York has always been my true home and creative anchor. My work has been featured in The New York Times and Elle Magazine, and I’ve worked with non-profits, startups, fashion brands, musicians, and private clients for decades.

Among all of it, the work closest to my heart has always been my fine art photography and photographing people during their most meaningful moments — weddings, portraits, bat and bar mitzvahs, and celebrations filled with love, emotion and legacy.

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