Rachel Brown talk.

Within her talk, Rachel spoke to us about how she went from being a photography graduate to becoming the Photography Director at both Harper's Bazaar and Town & Country magazine. I found this to be very helpful because I think it is really comforting to realise that the people that are in really good jobs or jobs that I may want to have at some point are simply just people who worked very hard and then ended up getting to a position in which they are happy and it didn't all happen overnight.

These three images are taken from a series entitled 'I Want To Be Just Like You' from 2008 for Rachel's final major project before she graduated. The third image that I have included is particularly interesting as it was entered into a fashion competition and won in its category - this is something that Rachel was keen on mentioning as the model within the photograph is 11 years old, and the project surrounded age and being appropriate. With this image winning, it proved the meaning behind the project of how some industries seem to have no boundaries.

After this, Rachel went to New York for a year from August 2008 to May 2009 doing an Artist Residency with Photo Global. She has then continued to revisit the country to create work. As initially she was in a brand new country and was feeling particularly lonely due to moving there completely by herself, she started to form a project which was very much a personal experience of her time there:

The Malevolent Eye:

In her talk, Rachel said about this work that she was really scared when taking the images, as she went to places she was perhaps not meant to be going to and had to use long exposures to achieve the desired image. They were shot at night time and this again made the process of creating the images that little bit scarier due to it being dark and her being alone whilst doing so. The place in which she stayed in America was next door to a Japanese boarding school, and the students ended up being interested in what she was doing. This lead on to her creating a project called 'The Boarding School':

Another one of her projects, entitled 'The Male Pin Up Casting':

This contrasts with another one of her projects: 'The Swimming Pool Casting' as this contains women in which she simply shot inside a swimming pool area.

In these images, Rachel said that she showed the women what the camera would be getting within the frame and told them to act whichever way they wanted to - she gave little direction as to what to do or how to look. This causes the images to have quite a surreal feel to them; the images seem very staged because of how they are all still and have posed themselves in a really structured way. In the images she took of the women on the diving board, she asked them to all stand in the same place as to make sure they all looked as similar as possible - the pool below the board was completely empty and so she framed it this way as to not get this in the shot.

Something very different within her work is the project 'The Self As The Other', in which she has used self portraiture to become a character within the image. She said she was concerned with showing this project because in it she really subjected herself to the camera and bared all - she took nude portraits and showing these to a room full of people seemed to be uncomfortable for her at first but then talking about the images seemed to calm her down and explain herself easier. 

I think this perfectly sums up the project as it is coming from Rachel herself, and gives the project a lot more depth than simple nudes.

Looking at the images initially, there is a clear sense of unease within them through the ghostly portraits she has created of herself in a really beautiful way. When learning that these were created after feeling a ghostly presence around her, the eeriness and the scare factor is increased by a lot as it gives it a second layer of meaning. Within the frame of the images, she said that she doesn't interfere with anything at all so everything that is in the image was there when she set her camera up, which is interesting as it makes the viewer question why some things are in the image - for example, the broom in a chapel. In her talk, she stated that the last picture I included was taken seconds before a cat seemed to appear from nowhere and launch at her - this made her quickly get out of the chapel as it startled her.

The Ballad of Fire Mountain:

This project came as a result of a five week residency at Mt Etna in Sicily. This volcano is the most active one in Europe, and includes the highest point of inhabitants.

Above is some text to go alongside the images to help give it more context.

As well as looking at the surroundings of the place in which she visited, Rachel also looked at the people who lived there - some of whom had never left the small town in which they live near Etna. Talking to one of the residents of the town, Rachel said that they talked very fondly of the volcano and liked it when they could hear the volcano making sounds as they believe they are 'safe because she's singing' as once the volcano is quiet it is getting ready to erupt.

Some artist residency references she gave us:

residencyunlimited.org/opportunities

resartists.org

transartists.org/map

blog.re-title.com/opportunities

This is one she had found and wanted to tell us about:

As well as talking to us about her personal practice, she also talked to us about how she got to be the Photography Director at Harper's Bazaar and Town & Country, and what the job is really like.

Before getting the job she is in right now, she had other jobs:

Worked for Steven Klein (Production)

Intern at British Vogue (Freelance Picture Editor)

Tim Walker (Studio Manager).

Working with Tim Walker she said was really daunting initially, but after getting to know him and working with him a few times, it was just like working with a friend. He uses a lot of props and set designs for his work and some set designers Rachel knew of were Rhea Thierstein, Andy Hillman and Shona Heath.

Working for Harper's Bazaar, she has quite a lot of say in how the magazine looks and what may or may not go into it. The first shoot she published was Nicole Kidman by Norman Jean Roy:

Another shoot she creatively directed (Helena Bonham Carter by Tom Craig):

Alexa Chung for Harper's Bazaar (Alexa Chung by David Slijper):

Riccardo Tisci by Tom Craig:

Rachel spoke about this image in quite a lot of depth as it was taken just after the Paris attacks happened. Riccardo wanted to be stood on a building with wings on his back but Rachel felt that this had connotations of death and seemed a bit insensitive so tried to talk him out of it but he was adamant. They shot the image and then it came out better than expected, and I think they have managed to create an image that isn't insensitive at all and is more of a reference to caring for the city rather than mocking it.

One shoot that she has done is one with Kristen Stewart in Coco Chanel's apartment which was shot by Tom Craig:

For the cover of Harper's Bazaar, Kristen Stewart really contrasts with the elegant interior of the apartment as she has a very punky style which creates an interesting visual - her blonde short hair works in a feminine punk way. The use of the mirrors within the images works really well as it creates an aesthetically pleasing image and is something which creates interest within the images as you can see a variety of different things within the same frame - in the second image it is also interesting that she is looking into the lens of the camera through the mirror, not directly.