Alison Brady: photography and surrealism

It's hard to look at photographs by American photographer Alison Brady without being shaken. There is something disturbing in her images, in the poses, the lighting, the mystery that vaguely resembles surrealistic paintings, something that places us in the uncomfortable role of the voyeur. However, these are not paintings, but rather pictures of real people and real things. This realism makes them even more extraordinary.

The artist explains that she explores subjects that are related to the alienation of western culture, which is expressed through phsycological disorders, such as depression or anxiety and even traumatic situations. She tries to express it all through over-the-top, grotesque compositions, in which horror, erotism, beauty and humour are mixed. Sometimes interesting contrasts and sybolic evocations appear and, accidentally, bring out images from our subconscious.

Nevertheless, Brady's photographs reveal great imagination, creativity and dramatic sense, creating, with few, well-run means, profoundly poetic and suggestive atmospheres. If Freud were alive, he would certainly find excellent material in these pictures...

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