SELECTED FOR THE WOMEN IN PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO LONDON PAVILION COMMISSION 2019 ALONGSIDE MARY MCCARTNEY AND SUSAN MEISELAS

“Rachel Louise Brown’s approach to photography is original and astonishing. An artist-in-residence at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, England-born Brown decided to focus on the oft-advertised image of Florida as the land of escapism, entertainment and thrills, a symbol of the American Dream. Exploring local attractions alone and after hours, including the Palm Beach Zoo, Mar-a-Lago, Fright Nights at the South Florida Fairground and The Breakers, and juxtaposing portraits of young ballerinas, gymnasts and marching bands who are trained to entertain, she has produced a personal and intentionally objective view of these familiar landmarks in her solo exhibition, SIMULATIONS”

The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County

A selection of images from the solo exhibition and publication. All photographs were made whilst living on Mount Etna, Sicily; Europe's most active volcano - during an artist's residency awarded by the town of Zafferana Etnea. 

"In the last gasping breath of the Clearlake Hotel in London, a group of artists celebrate, commemorate and consecrate the life and death of such an unusually rich visual landscape. ‘The Last Breath’ is a one night exhibition of art, design and performance within the walls of this vastly historical hotel".

Brown spent a night alone in a room at the Clearlake hotel, creating imagery whilst drug addicts, prostitutes and those escaping reality roamed around the hallways. 

THE EXHIBITION EVENT TOOK PLACE AT THE CLEARLAKE HOTEL ON 4th DECEMBER 2014

Extract from 'The Self as Every Woman' a conversation between Rachel Louise Brown and Megan Powell, printed in The Malevolent Eye publication... 

MP: Malevolent tropes are often used in cinema to symbolise 'the other', e.g. the supernatural and the suspense of the unknown. How does this relate to your self portraits? 

RLB: The type of malevolence you describe became prevalent when I turned the camera on myself. My work had come to a point where I had repeated the process so many times that the unfamiliar had become familiar. I took the camera to a house in Averyon, France. Strangely I kept waking up in the early hours of the morning, paralysed, with the feeling that there was a haunted presence in the room. My imagination regressed back to childhood. Was the room haunted? Was it my imagination? When alone, I made self portraits in the room, becoming that which I feared. 'The Ghost' was made and the 'Self as the Other' series began. I often wonder whether cinema (and other parts of culture such as literature) affect how we experience emotion or whether emotional responses are innate. I am definitely aware of how the unknown is visualised in cinema, which must affect my imagination and visual response to a certain degree. 

A selection of works from the book and exhibition. The images were created whilst trespassing, wandering at night alone and with strangers found via casting calls. 

Extract from The Malevolent Eye Introduction, by Christian Caujolle 

CC: From the outset, photographers have developed techniques, devices and playful stratagems that enable them to blend reality with fiction. They have encouraged their audience to believe in what they see, and to forget that it is an image; moreover, they give the impression that the image - however improbable it may be - is much more credible that reality. By playing in this complex and subtle way, not being truthful while never really lying, Brown draws us into a world that is strictly her own. It is offered to us not as fiction but as reality, like a dream given form - strange and marvellous, while remaining enigmatic. 

The participants were found via a casting call placed on Craiglist.com. The advert asked for men who considered themselves pinups to come along to a Manhattan studio and pose for one roll of film. No money was offered in exchange for posing nor any instruction given on how to dress or pose. 

Photographs taken in and around a Japanese boarding school in Slough, England 

Work made during the residency Rencontres de la jeune photographie international, Niort 2010. The participants are local teenage girls who agreed to pose for photographs at the town's swimming pool.  

Portraits of the artist's teenage relatives wearing her grandmother’s nightdress - a dress she would try on as a young girl to see what it might be like to have an adult female body. 

As part of the Miss New Haven beauty pageant, the contestants are asked to wear an outfit suitable for a business interview. Each girl was interviewed by a middle aged man for an imaginary job roll. He judged and ranked them, with the points going towards each contestant’s overall position within the pageant.