COURTNEY BROOKE: PHOTOGRAPHER AND CONCEPTUAL ARTIST
Courtney Brooke is a photographer from New England who makes effortlessly dreamy pictures that evoke found photographs from the Seventies, magik, nature and dreamlike landscapes. We love her!
Describe your artistic style.
I have always been drawn to the concept of the human spirit being an energy, being light, and that our current form is just our vessel. I am interested in exploring the way light moves around us and inside us. This linear light we have created through history, that as individuals and collectively we are the past and the future in one chaotic light burst. Each image is a pinpoint, a marker of a moment and of possibility. I am constantly trying to find that place where what is, what could have been and what could be all converge. The “dream” world has no reason, in my mind, to be any different than the waking one. It’s from this place that my style takes shape.
You shoot a lot of self-portraits. Why do you prefer this way of working as opposed to using models?
It’s not that I prefer it so much as it is a means to an end. I live a mostly isolated life in the woods. The tranquility of being surrounded by nature translates to the reality of the difficult task of finding people who are willing to make the trek out here and be close to tortured by me for the sake of art. In the last few years I have been blessed with a growing collection of friends who seem to tolerate being barefoot in winter or scantily clad in the coldest water I can find. Using others in my work gives me a different sort of flexibility than shooting myself, but self portraits always have the gift of not having to worry about another individual’s comfort or having to direct my subject.
What’s the creative scene like in New England and what is the most inspiring thing about the place?
New England and Western Massachusetts more specifically, where I currently reside is one of my favorite places for the surrounding environments of both nature and culture. It’s a beautiful and progressive place that isn’t afraid to hold on to its history. Most of my area is nature and farm land, old maples and rolling hills. There is a strong community of people embracing all sorts of creativity and there are plenty of well-grounded weirdos to work with on new projects.
Your work has a feel of photographs or horror movie stills from the seventies. Was this intentional?
Without a doubt. Giallo films are one of my weaknesses. I am drawn to dark romanticism as well as the tones and balance of light and dark of films from that period. I am also influenced by other directors as well, like Jean Cocteau, David Lynch, as well as many silent films and a few Czech new wave films.
Your work has a dream like quality to it. Are you influenced by your dreams or does it come from books and movies?
I spend a good amount of time watching movies and reading books, so I think they tend to influence my dreams which in turn affect my work. I think that people are more like sponges than they would like to admit, myself included. For example, I can go back in my work and look at an image and it will be obvious to me that I had just read The Song of Ice and Fire novels or just listened to Julee Cruise. I have been inspired recently by the Pre-Raphaelites, and reading Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil again so we will see where that takes me. The truth is I have more visions then I do dreams, I hardly remember my dreams long enough to even write them down, but the visions persist.
There is an amount of creative storytelling going on in your work. Do you see yourself as a narrator?
A guide perhaps. I don’t want to tell the viewers what they should be thinking, or who that person is. Just that this is here and you can do with it what you will. I am not trying to tell a story but trying to create an environment for others to write a story around. I am providing forms for people to fill in with their own identities, their own memories, their own light.
Which piece of work has given you the most satisfaction in producing?
None is more satisfying than the next. I think that if I was truly satisfied I wouldn’t have the same sort of drive to keep creating, to make something better than the last. There is some reward in knowing that now that phantom has been captured for others to see. There is some satisfaction, but it’s never enough. If I was really pleased with it I think I would just stop, but like a junkie I keep thinking that the next fix is going to be better, it’s going to be the one. So I press on.
If there had to be a soundtrack to your art, what would it be?
Recently I have been drawn to having classical music on while I work, lots of Purcell, Debussy and Mendelssohn. I think I am naturally drawn to music that is free from a lot of vocals. I tend to find myself listening to Goblin, Bo Hannson, Zombi, Death In June, etc. I need sounds that let my mind wander. I always lean to music that is a little more “moody” this time of year and Chelsea Wolfe’s album Pain is Beauty has been haunting me lately.
What is your biggest influence on your work?
The world around me and the way we choose to interact with it. Even more specifically, the people in my life I call family and friends, each an artist in their own right. They fuel the creative fire that burns inside and they push me to dive deeper, explore further, and continue to exercise my imagination.
