CREATIVE GATHERING:Linda Brownlee fell into photography almost by accident, but with commissions for Russian '
Vogue' under her belt, and a book about Achill teenagers in the pipeline, her success is no coincidence, writes
DEREK O'CONNOR
AN INTERVIEWER ONCE asked 1960s photographic legend David Bailey to describe his process. “It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer,” he said. “You need less imagination to be a painter, because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary.” Linda Brownlee, then, is a good photographer: a formidable talent who sees the beauty in the ordinary. Her influences are evident – from William Eggleston and Henri Cartier-Bresson to Sally Mann and Wolfgang Tillmans – but she brings something of her own that is truly special to the party. At its finest, her work is frank, achingly romantic and utterly real.
Dublin-born, London-based Brownlee has firmly established herself as an internationally renowned commercial photographer, a ubiquitous presence in hipster bibles such as Dazed And Confused, Vice and Nylon, by way of noteworthy commissions from the Guardianand Russian Vogue.Modest and self-deprecating, she manages to make her work sound rather effortless. "It's always been quite gradual," she says, "like 'Wow, I got a gig with Russian Vogue– brilliant.' Then, you look to the next thing: you go 'Hmm . . . I haven't shot for British Vogue yet.' I tend to amble along, as opposed to me being very goal orientated – which I'd like to be a bit more."
Insofar as career paths go, Brownlee embraced photography in a roundabout fashion, via a communications degree in Dublin City University, where she had been entertaining thoughts of a career in radio. “I wasn’t into photography at all, and then, when I finished in DCU, I started doing a portfolio course, because I was thinking of doing a degree in fine art. It was on that course that I started taking loads of pictures, and that was when I started getting into it.”
From there, she learned her trade in a suitably pragmatic fashion, spending a year and a half working in a Kildare portrait studio: even then, a certain hesitancy lingered when it came to embracing her talents. “It took ages for me to be able to call myself a photographer. I remember thinking ‘Okay, I might go to London and see what’s going on there’, to see if I really wanted to continue doing it. After a year in London, I finally said, yeah, this was the only thing for me.”
These days, she devotes an increasing amount of her time to what she calls “personal projects”, a compelling series of studies exploring what might best be described as society’s outsiders – her subjects have ranged from Irish power-lifters and Argentinian tango dancers to her London neighbours, the Parker family. The results can be viewed at www.lindabrownlee.com, and Brownlee’s affection for her subjects is tangible. “With the Parkers, I’ve been shooting them for over a year now, so we’ve developed a proper relationship, to the point where you’re almost like one of the family. You get a different level of intimacy altogether. They’re candid, but there’s some level of performance as well – a relaxed kind of performance.”
The next major project is a series capturing teenagers on Achill Island, off the coast of Mayo, a long-time holiday destination for Brownlee’s family – she’s publishing the results this November in her first book, which has been designed by graphic artist Wayne Daly. “I had wanted to do portraits on Achill for a long time,” Brownlee says. “The kids were the hook. It was partly that thing of just wanting to connect again with your teenage self. You forget what it’s like. You get really nostalgic, but at the same time, you’re really glad you’re not a teenager any more. Then, you realise how they’re looking at you – like I’m a proper grown-up – and that’s when it gets really terrifying. There’s definitely no going back,” she laughs. For a predominantly urban artist, the challenge of the rugged terrain of Achill offered Brownlee a welcome challenge. “It was a really nice escape from the symmetry of cities,” she says. “I was so used to using geometric lines and pavements and walls, it was a little scary at first. I was like ‘How do I frame this? How do I pose that?’ I didn’t know what to do with all the hills.”
Brownlee returns to her native Dublin this weekend to speak at the Offset Festival, an eclectic weekend-long celebration of creativity. Self-effacing to a fault, she professes to be as excited to be attending as a punter as she is to be addressing an audience. Above all else, her passion for her craft remains tangible. “I’m shooting a lot in London right now, and I’m really enjoying that again. It’s really important to mix it up whenever you can. I’m trying to do that all the time, because you get bored with yourself. I just want to get better at what I do.”
Linda Brownlee will be speaking at the Offset Festival, Dublin, today. www.iloveoffset.com
