Rachel louise brown - Guest Speaker
Today was very exciting as I attended an online lecture led by Rachel Louise Brown. Rachel works as both a Photographer and Photo Director at Harper’s Bazaar magazine as well as a lecturer. Listening to her talk was very inspiring and insightful especially seeing the different routes that you can explore with photography.
Rachel has attended many artist residencies between the years of 2008 and 2018. These include:
The School of Visual Arts, Photo Global in New York. 2008-2009.
Pour L'instant, International Photography Residency in France. 2010.
Le Cite International des Arts, Artist in Residence in Paris. 2010-2011.
Artist in Residence, Pinsent Masons in London. 2013-2014.
Zafferana Etnea, International Artist in Residence in Sicily. 2014.
Artist in Residence & Lecturer, Palm Beach Centre of Photography in Florida. 2014-2018.
As her residency in New York was coming to an end, Rachel wanted to stay on and extend her visa. However, she needed to find a job in the industry that she had studied and it was proving hard. Finally the studio manager of Steven Klein contacted her and she stayed for a further six months. Whilst Rachel was at the Palm Beach residence she created her project ‘Simulations’. She focused on people that had trained themselves to become a simulation. This was people such as gymnasts, ballerinas, strippers and even people at a mermaid show in Weeki Wachi Springs. She described all of these people as having strength and commitment, whilst performing femininity for different audiences.
Rachel applied for an MA at the Royal College of Arts and at the time they only took on ten people a year and she was accepted. During the final exhibition she presented a solo show and book ‘The Malevolent Eye’. The project was a psychological exploration that she had started in America but continued in the UK. Throughout the last six months of her MA, Rachel got an internship on the art desk at British Vogue (her peers had told her she was too northern and working class and not to bother applying for the role). During her time at Vogue, photographer Tim Walker was looking for someone to cover maternity as his studio manager so the art director at Vogue asked Rachel if she would be interested. The role included managing his schedule, project managing exhibitions and producing shoots, some for British and American Vogue. Rachel worked for Tim for two and half years.
Reproduction. 2010
After working for Tim, an opportunity on europe’s most active volcano Mount Etna came up. After flying over, Rachel stayed for 5 weeks on the volcano and this is where her project ‘The Ballad of Fire Mountain’ was created. Following on from this the picture editor at Harper’s Bazaar needed freelance cover and so Rachel worked there for two weeks. She was then asked to come back and edit the pictures for a travel guide, whilst she was there the picture editor resigned and so Rachel applied for the job. She got the job and has been there for 7 years.
In 2019 she showed her work at Photo London ‘Women in Photography’. Whilst creating her work in America, Rachel fell out with the centre where she had been doing her residency at because they refused to let her showcase her image of a stripper. Later on Rachel was able to showcase her image along side her others at Photo London, including this image was very important to her. During the COVID pandemic period, Rachel has launched with a gallery and agent that want to show her work. In the first lockdown she shot a commission for Begg X Co, a fashion brand. This job was assigned through the agency.
A Q&A was held during the lecture and Rachel had lots of amazing advice to give us. She spoke about how she would submit work in progress to portfolio reviews so that you can have a fresh pair of eyes looking at your work and critiquing it. She was also asked about tips for shooting during the night time. Her advice was if shooting on film take a tripod and a torch to help you focus and also the most important thing is to thinking of your wellbeing and safety whilst out at night. I had a question regarding creative blockages and how to overcome them. Rachel responded saying that she has them often (which was very reassuring and good to know that even professionals experience this) and that before the pandemic she would get over them by applying for artist residencies but as it is during a pandemic she has started doing sound baths and listening to talks to get her motivated. I found this extremely helpful and after putting this advice into practice, I was back to thinking of plenty of ideas. The lecture overall was brilliant and inspired me to start creating more work straight away as well as looking up residencies.
To view more of Rachel’s work click here: https://www.rachel-brown.com/