Author | Winter Mendelson
Born in the sticks of New York state’s Catskill mountains, Alannah Farrell is a 2-D artist who specializes in photography and illustration. She is also the photo director for the multi-media art and music duo based out of NYC, Virginaire.
Using analog and digital photography, drawing, and painting, she creates narratives for each person she photographs.
She was selected as one of the top 100 photographers for One Life International Photography 2012 and her biography/work has been shown in PAPERMAG, Madame Figaro and Italian Vogue.
Recently she co-curated a photography show with Candice Fortin that featured her work along with two other photographers at Clemente Soto Velez, L.E.S. Gallery in New York.
“I’m drawn to individuals that exist on the threshold between ugly, beautiful, male, female, flawed and idealized; individuals which access my raw, emotionally charged view of humanity. My portraits combine hand-painted backdrops, artificial and natural settings to create narratives for which the subject lives in. Recurring narrative themes focus on mystery, gender, uninhibited feeling and personal history.”
Her work is organized by different series titled “Teenage Years,” “Angel*R,” and “Down Home, Bucolic Blue” where she documents all kinds of individuals in an intimate setting. Every portrait leaves you either feeling closer to the subject, or wanting to know more.
From her “Portrait” series:
“My ongoing portraits document the people and environments around me, stripped down to the most elemental and emotionally raw visual depiction. The photos include an array of people from my personal life: fellow artists, gender progressive individuals, musicians, lovers, family. These people and situations have a profound effect upon me, and through these photographs I hope to access the strengths and weaknesses in myself and the people around me.”
From the series “Teenage Years”:
“Teenage Years is a portrait series of young aspiring models signed to an agency in New Jersey. I wanted to capture their beauty, vulnerability and bravery.”
From the series “Angel*R”:
“Angel*R is a selection of photographs taken over a period of time of the model Angel Rz. I met Angel through the NYC nightlife club kid scene. He is a beautiful androgynous individual whose physical beauty transcends gender. Angel has been my muse, friend and creative collaborator for several years. Recently he starred in Virginaire’s music video Bad Thief, a collaborative piece I worked on with artists Jared Oppenheim, Carl Adelson and Austin Green. It will be released this winter.”
From the series “Down Home, Bucolic Blue”:
“Down Home, Bucolic Blue is a series of photographs with hand-painted backdrops that conjure the atmosphere of timeless rural America. Inspired by my own childhood in the Catskills of upstate New York, I wanted to tell the story of an area where lush greenery and scenery is juxtaposed with abandoned artifacts from a once thriving farmland. These ghostly remnants exist in an economically depressed and sparsely populated rural area, slowly being reclaimed by the surrounding natural environment. I’m interested in the tensions created by the juxtaposition of natural and unnatural. In a series including portraits, still-life and landscape, I aim to create this sense of tension, history and personal narrative.”
Illustrations:
For more information visit her website.
