Picture(s) of the Week: Brea Souders

Rubberband (mom's reminder to stay flexible) from Constellation © Brea Souders


Yellow Paint Samples (creating light, post-breakup) from Constellation © Brea Souders

A peek from a new series titled Constellation by Brea Souders. For more work, please visit breasouders.com. Also revisit our Conversation with Brea.

Conversations Special: Art for Haiti Auction

Artist: Brea Souders
Title: Hung
Date: 2008
Size: 20x20 inches
Medium: C Print
Edition size: 10
Signature: Signed in ink, on reverse

As part of our Art for Haiti Auction event, we'd like to revisit conversations with participating artists. Today we're focusing on Brea Souders and Emily Shur, both of which are in Humble Arts Foundation's 31 Women in Art Photography.




© Brea Souders

Nymphoto: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Brea Souders: I was born and raised in Frederick, Maryland and studied photography at the University of Maryland Baltimore County before moving to New York City in 2005. I grew up as an only child in a house surrounded by woods, and I always had plenty of time to myself to daydream and breathe in my surroundings. My mom is a painter and my dad a physicist, and they have both influenced me in many ways. I was interested in psychology for most of my life growing up and started out in college as a psychology major, but quickly learned that I was not so interested in rigid text book theories, but instead in the vast potential and diversity of the human mind. I began to look to people who were pushing those boundaries rather than defining them. It was at this time that my interest in art became my primary interest. I wanted a better way to understand and engage life, and photography provided a perfect outlet.



© Brea Souders

NP: Where do you find inspiration?

BS: All kinds of things – the changes of seasons, shifts in light, bicycling at a fast clip, overhearing snippets of conversations when I’m out having coffee somewhere. All the usual things like that. The fabric and flower districts in New York are new places of inspiration – I like to cruise the aisles and imagine ways to use the various gems I discover. I always like to have a lot of books on hand, although unfortunately I rarely finish them. I’ve been reading a lot of dream journals for a current project and have found that to be really invigorating. Jack Kerouac’s Book of Dreams is an especially exciting read! Of course, learning about anything new is always inspiring, and I’m influenced by people who are determined to live in an expanded world and people with unusual beliefs. I’m also inspired by the discoveries of strange new organisms and any discoveries in space. And maybe most of all, I find a great meal with friends to be very inspiring. Good things usually come out of conversations had over a delicious feast!



Artist: Emily Shur
Title: "Hollywood Sign, Los Angeles, California"
Date: 2004
Medium and Size: 20x24" Digital C-print, edition 5/15, signed


Mila Kunis © Emily Shur

Nymphoto: Tell us a little about yourself.

Emily Shur: Well, since you asked! I was born in New York City in 1976. We moved around the tri-state area a bit and then eventually landed in Houston, TX when I was seven years old. I grew up in Houston and lived there until I went to college at NYU when I was seventeen. I was back in New York for almost twelve years. Now I live in Los Angeles with my husband and our dog. I am an only child. I enjoy eating sushi and drinking red wine (not at the same time of course), and I hope to excel at the expert level of Guitar Hero at some point in my life.


Images from Japan © Emily Shur

NP: You are an accomplished photographer. Can you tell us a person you would like to photograph, who you have not had the chance to photograph yet? And which sitting has been your favorite so far and why?

ES: Some people I would like to photograph but have not yet had the chance include (but are not limited to) Stevie Wonder, Anthony Bourdain, Jack Black, Anne Hathaway, Barack Obama, David Lee Roth, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Tina Fey, Jenny Lewis (I have shot Rilo Kiley but it wasn’t one of my best), and Morrissey. I have different reasons for wanting to photograph all of those people, and those same reasons are what would make a past shoot stand out as a favorite. Some shoots I love because I got to photograph a person I have admired for a long time and has done something that truly impacted me...say David Byrne and/or Al Gore. Some shoots I love because it’s someone I think is super talented and the shoot is a true collaboration with that person...say Jason Schwartzman, Amy Poehler, and Alan Arkin. Then there are some people that are just plain great to photograph for multiple reasons. They get it. They get the process of photography, what makes for a good portrait, they look great, they’re interesting....say Jeremy Piven, Zooey Deschanel, and more recently Amanda Seyfried.


Images from Japan © Emily Shur

NP: On your blog you speak about your personal work and you have a section for it on your website. What drives your personal work? It is interesting that you photograph people for a living while they are absent for the most part in your personal work.

ES: I could bullshit this answer, but to be honest I’m not 100% sure what drives my personal work. I can say that I love exploring and wandering and documenting and feeling calm. This is exactly what’s going on with me when I’m making my personal work. I have never been a very project oriented photographer, but I do have certain long term bodies of work that I am currently in the midst of. Right now I am in love with photographing in Japan, have been for a while. I also recently began a project in New Jersey. As you said, there are barely any people in any of my personal photographs. I think one reason for this is that I make a living dealing with people and personalities. Portraits are so mental. It’s a lot of work to connect with a stranger, appease multiple people at a time, and make it look good. When I shoot for myself, I just want to deal with just one personality – my own. Mostly, I want to explore things and places that are interesting to me and interpret them and my place within them using my voice and perspective.

Remember, you only have 5 days left of the auction. Please help us support Haiti.
Click here to see all the artwork offered in the auction and be sure to check if the reserve minimum have been set.

Graphic Intersections

from The Exposure Project:


from graphic intersections © Jane Tam

Graphic Intersections is a collaborative project loosely based on the old Surrealist and Dadaist game The Exquisite Corpse. Designed to unite disparate artists in an interconnected photographic relay of images inspired by one another, this project strives to emphasize a system of response entirely rooted in unmediated visual reaction.

The first photographer made a photograph, which was subsequently forwarded to the second in line. The 2nd then, based solely on their own visual, emotional, intellectual or philosophical response, in turn made photographs in artistic reaction to the one they were given. The artists involved were not given any written material to accompany the photograph, nor did they know whose image they were responding to. This was designed to propagate chance, or as the Surrealist’s put it, exploit “the mystique of accident.”

Ultimately, Graphic Intersections to challenge the bounds of sequential, narrative imagery, while simultaneously fostering stronger lines of artistic affiliation.

Graphic Intersections brings together images by:
Ben Alper, Anastasia Cazabon, Thomas Damgaard, Scott Eiden, Grant Ernhart, Jon Feinstein, Elizabeth Fleming, Alan George, Hee Jin Kang, Drew Kelly, Michael Marcelle, Chris Mottalini, Ed Panar, Bradley Peters, Cara Phillips, Noel Rodo-Vankeulen, Irina Rozovsky, Brea Souders, Jane Tam and Grant Willing

This Week: Brea Souders

©Brea Souders


See Brea Souders work at:

Jack the Pelican Presents
Untitled: 10 artists questioning realism and abstraction
October 23 - November 15
Opening reception: Friday, October 23, 6:30 - 9 pm
http://www.jackthepelicanpresents.com

Address:
487 Driggs Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Murray State University: Clara Eagle Gallery
Creatures Great and Small
October 23 - December 6
Opening Reception: Friday, October 23, 6 - 8 pm
http://www.murraystate.edu/chfa/art/gallery

Address:
604 Fine Arts Building
Murray, Kentucky 42071

New Issue of URBANAUTICA

In the new issue of URBANAUTICA:

Textures of time by Richard Chivers, living water by Brea Souders, fragile reality by Yee Ling Tang, Ferit Kuyas's city of ambition, wildfires by Youngsuk Suh, and much more on www.urbanautica.com.

Brea Souders: Open Studio

No. 5 (Emanuel Swedenborg) from Islands & Streams © Brea Souders

Brea Souders is opening up her studio to the public as part of the Bushwick Open Studios and Arts Festival on Sunday, June 7, from 12-8 pm. She will display several new images from her current series Islands & Streams, as well as some other work created within the past year. All are welcome.

Bushwick Open Studios
Sunday, June 7, 12 -8 pm
250 Moore St, #303
Brooklyn, NY 11206

She is located 2 blocks from the Morgan stop on the L train.

For more info:
www.breasouders.com
www.artsinbushwick.com

A Conversation with Brea Souders

Once you see a Brea Souders image it will stay with you and linger. Her work functions on many levels and you can feel the care that she takes in creating each image. We are greatly pleased to present a conversation with this talented artist today.


©Brea Souders


Nymphoto: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Brea Souders: I was born and raised in Frederick, Maryland and studied photography at the University of Maryland Baltimore County before moving to New York City in 2005. I grew up as an only child in a house surrounded by woods, and I always had plenty of time to myself to daydream and breathe in my surroundings. My mom is a painter and my dad a physicist, and they have both influenced me in many ways. I was interested in psychology for most of my life growing up and started out in college as a psychology major, but quickly learned that I was not so interested in rigid text book theories, but instead in the vast potential and diversity of the human mind. I began to look to people who were pushing those boundaries rather than defining them. It was at this time that my interest in art became my primary interest. I wanted a better way to understand and engage life, and photography provided a perfect outlet.


©Brea Souders


NP: How did you discover photography?

BS: There were several little used cameras that were given to me in childhood – a polaroid, a 110, and point and shoot 35mm’s – I remember being vaguely interested in them and snapping photos in the woods, of people’s hands, or of my two cats. But unfortunately, I can’t claim to be one of the romantics that fell in love with photography instantly. It’s been a slow process, with spurts of growth and a lot of confusion in between. I’ve experimented a lot with the medium and feel I am just now finding my voice. When I was 17, I discovered a book of surrealist photographs by Man Ray in my mom’s bookcase. This book shocked me and sparked an enormous interest in the medium. That same year I began to take photography classes and fell in love with antiquarian and alternative processes. Artists like Dan Estabrook and Susan Fenton were major influences at that time (and still are). It took years for me to appreciate color photography, but after I graduated from college I saw some photographs by Bernard Faucon and thought the color was just astonishing. I’ve been hooked on color ever since, and study it everywhere I go.




NP: Where do you find inspiration?

BS: All kinds of things – the changes of seasons, shifts in light, bicycling at a fast clip, overhearing snippets of conversations when I’m out having coffee somewhere. All the usual things like that. The fabric and flower districts in New York are new places of inspiration – I like to cruise the aisles and imagine ways to use the various gems I discover. I always like to have a lot of books on hand, although unfortunately I rarely finish them. I’ve been reading a lot of dream journals for a current project and have found that to be really invigorating. Jack Kerouac’s Book of Dreams is an especially exciting read! Of course, learning about anything new is always inspiring, and I’m influenced by people who are determined to live in an expanded world and people with unusual beliefs. I’m also inspired by the discoveries of strange new organisms and any discoveries in space. And maybe most of all, I find a great meal with friends to be very inspiring. Good things usually come out of conversations had over a delicious feast!


©Brea Souders


NP: How do your projects come about?

BS: I carry a sketchbook with me most of the time and try to write down things that inspire me regularly. I usually have a few seeds of ideas spinning around for a while, and when one idea grows out of control, I decide to devote more time and energy towards seeing it to fruition. I’m learning to dive into projects more quickly. Most of my work relies on a lot of research and I have a tendency to get hung up in that stage. It comes to a point where I feel almost paralyzed and don’t know where to begin with the actual production. So I’m forcing myself to produce work earlier on, side by side with the research. It results in more photos that end up getting scrapped, but I think overall it benefits the work and is a better balance of planning and intuition.



©Brea Souders


NP: What's next?

BS: I’m currently working on a project called Islands & Streams that examines the recorded dreams of scientists, philosophers, writers and other luminaries from whom I’ve drawn creative inspiration. I’m isolating fragments from their dreams, creating them in my studio or outdoors, and then photographing them. The final photographs will be sequenced together to create a new narrative.

NP: Thank you!

To see more of Brea's work, please visit: www.breasouders.com.

Opening Reception Tonight: Brea Souders

© Brea Souders

See Brea Souders work in
Meet Waradise – Fjord Exhibition, NYC
17 Orchard Street
Reception: November 19th, 6 - 9 P.M

Emerging Artist Auction

Head over to igavel.com to bid on some fantastic work by the wonderful Brea Souders, Samantha Contis, Cara Phillips and many more -- curated by Daniel Cooney.

Opening Reception Tonight: Brea Souders

"Time Between"
Brea Souders
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand at Pitt
New York, NY 10002
Sep. 6 - Oct. 12, 2008

Opening Reception:
September 13, 2008, 6:30 -8:30pm

Brea Souders

(via pause to begin) Brea Souders is having her first solo show, Time Between, running from September 6 - October 12 at the Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement, in lower Manhattan. The opening reception is Saturday, September 13, from 6:30 - 8:30pm.

From her artist statement:
I’m interested in the way superstitions reflect the human urge for story telling and our need for control in an uncertain world. They act as portals to a childhood sensibility, and can transform an ordinary scene into a mysterious tableau, rich with new meaning. While researching this project, I found that superstitions morph from place to place, but certain themes remain constant. I became interested in what these themes can tell us about our fears and desires, and how they shape our psychology from an early age. Using both meditated and candid photography, I look to capture the whimsy and tension that superstitions evoke in us, and to illuminate the scope of our collective imaginings.

TIME BETWEEN
Photographs by Brea Souders
Sep. 6 - Oct. 12, 2008

Opening Reception
September 13, 2008
6:30 -8:30pm

Gallery Hours:
Tuesdays-Saturdays: 9am - 10pm
Sundays: 10am - 6pm

Address:
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand at Pitt
New York, NY 10002
212.598.0400