The Brad by Summer HS winner Rachael Dunville

Rachael Dunville
Currently residing in New York, NY

website: www.rachaeldunville.com

Work Statement
There is a distinct and profound pleasure in making portraits. I approach the transaction of making a photograph of and with another person as an intuitive, magical exchange; a subtle seduction between willing participants.

With striking impunity, the people I photograph can look straight into the camera, and therefore, straight into me. What is unveiled in this hushed interface is a distilled state of emotional undress; the honest curiosity to explore the conditions of looking into someone becomes something sacred and intense. We blush.

Using only available light, the resulting images reveal a complex, curious, and often disarming view of our encounter—fostered by the rapt attention between photographer and subject. Whether neighbor or stranger, my subjects are not arranged or posed. I have found that if I open space for them to be, their be-ing-ness is more inspiring than anything I could have possibly arranged.

Inspiration flirts with me about as often as I breathe, but at the deepest point from which I grow stems the influence of Peter Hujar, Mike Disfarmer and Joni Mitchell—all of whom keep me striving to convey a rich and complex human essence expressed through the grace of the photographic medium.

Bio
I was born and raised in the sacred and little known Ozark Mountains of Southwest Missouri. A town called Springfield. A street called Cedarbrook.

Generally speaking, I got into photography in childhood as an unabashed and obsessive memory collector. My mother supported a roll-a-day maximum through grade school and I scored a job at a 1-hour shop to fund my trigger finger until I moved away for college. There, at last, I learned what that fickle needle was in my viewfinder. Through photo books, my only access to a non-technical photo education, I tried to deepen my grasp of what I saw and how I wished to weave into the course. I started a freelance photography business and took many classes from many colleges, finally receiving my BFA from Southwest Missouri State University. I promptly moved to New York City where I earned my MFA in Photography at School of Visual Arts.

Since graduation, I have traveled widely and have generated even more momentum for the passionate pursuit of my image making and communication thereof. I currently live in NYC where I continue to expand upon my projects, goals and fine-art career.