When Everyone Wants to Go Offline

Lately I’ve noticed more conversations about privacy. People talking about not wanting to be photographed as much. Wanting to be less visible online. Choosing to stay a bit more offline, even at events. It's something I’ve been thinking about a lot while working in live illustration. Because most events I work at are still very photo-heavy. Everything is documented. Everything is shared. And in many cases, not everyone in the room has actually consented to being photographed.

This is where I’ve started to think about live illustration differently. It doesn’t document people in the same way. It captures presence, but not in a literal sense. Someone can be drawn in a way that feels like them, without being turned into a photograph that exists everywhere afterwards.

There’s also something interesting about the way people respond to it. When someone knows they’re being photographed, there’s usually a shift. A slight awareness of the camera. How they look. Where the image might end up.

When someone is being drawn, that changes. People relax more. They talk. They move normally. They forget about it pretty quickly. And often, that’s when the drawing feels most accurate. Not because it’s perfect, but because it’s honest in a different way.

I’ve also noticed that guests engage with it differently. Some people choose to sit. Some don’t. Some just watch for a few minutes and keep walking. It doesn’t require anything from everyone in the room. It just exists alongside everything else happening.

I don’t think photography is going anywhere. It’s still a huge part of events and how we document them. But I do think there’s space for other ways of capturing people. Ways that don’t always require a fixed image of everyone.

Live illustration sits in that space for me. Not replacing photography. Just offering something a bit quieter.

Cai photographed at Australian Fashion Week 2027 | Photography by Esther Reynolds-Verco