Brooke Shaden's Surreal Photography
March 17, 2012 10:28 AM   Subscribe

Brooke Shaden is an LA-based fine-art photographer. (Note: none of the directly linked images are NSFW but there is some fine-art nudity in the photostream.)

"Within the space of a square frame, I try to build a world that is undeniably separate from the one we live in. What fascinates me about any artistic medium is that it can pull the viewer out of a logical and common world, and place them within a space that is more alive. When I use a square frame, I hope that the viewer will forget that they are looking at a photograph and instead see an alternate reality, one that mixes painterly qualities with surrealism and fantasy." -Artist statement
posted by mstokes650 (14 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Is the note warning or advertisement?
posted by djduckie at 11:07 AM on March 17, 2012


Odd question. It's a warning for folks who might trawl carelessly through the Flickr stream while at work. You know, like the NSFW warnings on almost every other post with potentially NSFW content on this site? Though some workplaces, artistic nudity would be fine and others it wouldn't, so I was specific.

Really I assume folks can find porn on the internet just fine by themselves, and unless you have some really strange tastes I don't think this post would help much.
posted by mstokes650 at 11:19 AM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


what if my coworkers have some kind of, like, composition fetish or something
posted by LogicalDash at 11:27 AM on March 17, 2012


Some interesting stuff here, and especially impressive for someone who's apparently only been shooting for 3 years or so. (she's already got sponsors!?!?) Granted, these images would probably be more accurately described as "photo manipulations," as the photography itself seems to bear only a small portion of responsibility for the final image. Very painterly images, indeed. The underwater images in particular have a terrific chiaroscuro to them.
posted by ShutterBun at 11:33 AM on March 17, 2012


She has a YouTube channel as well, which is sort of a "behind the scenes" collection of some of her location shoots, although I'd be far more interested in seeing some photoshop walk-throughs, as that seems to be where most of the magic is happening.
posted by ShutterBun at 11:36 AM on March 17, 2012


It's time she branched out and found some non-white models.
posted by Brocktoon at 11:39 AM on March 17, 2012


It's time she branched out and found some non-white models.

Not gonna happen:

"Brooke Shaden was born in March of 1987 in Lancaster, PA, USA. She grew up near the "Amish Country" until attending Temple University."
posted by Arthur Phillips Jones Jr at 12:19 PM on March 17, 2012



Not gonna happen:

"Brooke Shaden was born in March of 1987 in Lancaster, PA, USA. She grew up near the "Amish Country" until attending Temple University."
Right, and as we all know, people from Rural PA will never, under any circumstances, photograph non-whites. That's just logic. Besides, it's not like there are even any non-whites nearby where she lives, in Los Angeles.
posted by delmoi at 12:50 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Sorry for continuing the derail but Lancaster, PA is only 55% white, non-hispanic. The whole state doesn't look like the set of Witness.
posted by octothorpe at 2:13 PM on March 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


It's time she branched out and found some non-white models.

why? If the aim of her art was to be representative of her surroundings, or to act some sort of social realism, then maybe this would be a valid argument. The point of her art seems to be surrealism, which doesn't really need diversity requirements.
posted by billyfleetwood at 3:17 PM on March 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


I gotta say, stuff like this on screens never does it for me. It's too hard to tell whether the details will hold up when it gets large, and the conceptual aspect of this stuff seems pretty mediocre, so it's really about how gorgeous she can make the print.
posted by klangklangston at 9:34 PM on March 17, 2012


What's her day rate? And isn't this basically an ad?
posted by mrhappy at 9:36 PM on March 17, 2012


What's her day rate? And isn't this basically an ad?

To judge by her blog she doesn't have a "day rate" because she doesn't generally do shoots for other people. And I'm not sure why you'd assume this was an ad and not just a cool thing I found on the web, but it is, in fact, something I found on the web and thought was cool.
posted by mstokes650 at 9:09 AM on March 18, 2012


why?

Whatever. Art is meant to be critiqued. I critiqued it. It's like watching network TV.
posted by Brocktoon at 11:00 AM on March 18, 2012


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