Shannon McGill Senior Portfolio: Artist-Elina Brotherus

Bio:

"Elina Brotherus (b. 1972 Helsinki, Finland), works in photography and video. Her early work delt with subjective experiences, the presence and absence of love. She then moved on to more formal issues in her series The New Painting. Her current work is centered on the relation of the human figure and landscape, and on the gaze of an artist on his/her model. Elina Brotherus lives and works in Finland and in France."

I am happy to Elina's subject matter relates so closely to my own. Even just the few sentences in her bio above sum up my own work also. Her images speak to the human condition, they show loneliness and are sometimes scattered with odd pairings of people. There seems to be a tension present in some of her work, sometimes sad, sometimes peaceful. While researching her I came across a criticism of hers that made me somewhat worried:

"There is one particular reason why some people tend to get itchy when confronted with

seemingly casual but simultanuously deeply touching self-portraits - again especially if the

object is a fragile and beautiful young woman. The responses are rather well-known. This

style is too easy, it is too insular, focusing only at the joy of navel gazing. And, they might

add, who really is or even should be interested in the psychological traumas of another cute

little lost girl somewhere out there."

This makes me afraid for my own work. I don't want to be too insular, or a "cute little lost girl". I don't want people to stop caring about my work because of this so I just need to be conscious of my communication to avoid this kind of criticism. Apparently Elina Brotherus has successfully worked around this issue.

Quotes:

"Have you ever tried to portrait yourself in such a way that the photo directly and without any

whatsoever mercy or aesthetization pictures you in the state of burning lonelyness? Hmmm, I do not know about you, but what I do know and see is that Elina Brotherus does it, and does

it very often and coherently."

"It is a kind of lonely unhappiness that fills the emptiness, not asking for permission, and not negotiating but with force confiscating and filling every corner every second and every tiny particle of air that is left to breath. Lonelyness that rules and fulfills the empty spaces as in the natural phenomenas."