Brooke Shaden - What is Weird?

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“I think that weird is attracted to weird.”

Brooke Shaden is weird. Isn’t that wonderful?

“I do a lot of things that are controversial in a lot of ways.”

1:42 - Weird is Attracted to Weird

5:41 - The War Against Apathy

11:36 - Analytics and Emotions

15:13 - Always Be Creating

17:21 - Darkness

18:41 - Selling Out

24:35 - The Fine Art World

26:08 - Creativity in Business

27:56 - Masks and Identity

33:21 - Taking the Mask Off

34:47 - Grieving and Becoming

38:23 - Joy

40:53 - Handling Inevitability

44:37 - No More to Learn

46:03 - A Bit of a Formal Way

“I want to make people feel strongly.”

Brooke Shaden is a conceptual fine art photographer specializing in self-portraiture. After graduating college with degrees in film and English, she turned to photography to tell the stories she always wanted to let loose. Photography provided a medium that was faster than film with the richness of story that writing had, and she built a career from those passions. Her work has received awards for it’s cohesion and storytelling abilities. Many of the images are dark yet timeless and whimsical, creating a sometimes disturbing yet beautiful montage of worlds that people feel connected to. Shaden’s work reminds us that there is dark and light inside us all, and that element has allowed for openness and sharing of the ideology behind the works, garnering more than one million followers online. When not creating personal work, Brooke is a dedicated philanthropist, teaching self-expression workshops for survivors of human trafficking. She has also started photography schools for the same community in India and Thailand. Brooke lives in a small mountain town with her husband and kitties.

“I am just as creative when I’m writing a proposal for a grant as I am when I’m making art.”