kate o'brien
Utata Member
Bio
Kate O'Brien emerged in the Australian Photographic scene in 2005. After enrolling in a Bachelor of Fine Art at the Queensland College of Art in 2002, Kate spent several years studying Intermedia and Sculpture before realising in her final year that her true passion was photography. Since that artistic epiphany she has become a strong creative force in the Australian art scene and has been published in a variety of books and magazines, including Camera Australia Magazine, Australian Rolling Stone and several local street press newspapers. In 2006 she was honoured to be included in the Catherine Jamieson book, Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting.
Many people often remark on the attention to detail in Kate's work. Projects are sometimes years in the making while Kate scours online auctions, op-shops, thrift stores and liquidators looking for just the right piece to complete the vision. Her love of Victoriana and the macabre often informs her work and she is always on the look out for weird and wonderful items to include in her photographs.
Kate finds it difficult to verbalise where she draws her inspiration from, she places great importance on memories and tradition. She recalls dressing up barbie dolls and creating backdrops and photographing them as a child, which she often claims proves she has regressed to a childlike state, however she also claims her work is an ongoing display of the great joy and great sadness of life. Memories of looking at turn of the century photos of dead ancestors and sorting through her great grandmothers sewing box all left an strong impression with Kate in ways she never dreamt of.
These memories now exhibit themselves as this selection of photographic monuments to an eirie world in a simpler time.
Kate was born in Wodonga, Victoria and now lives in Brisbane, Queensland with her Husband, their two cats and her three ducks.
Testimonial
Kate's portraits hit you like a sweet, sharp slap in the face -- you're left dizzy, but delighted. She shoots in wild candy colors and retro-fabulous pastels, always with an eye for the dramatic and the humorous. Her photographs are often elaborately staged and processed, but they remain so playful that they somehow manage to seem vintage and modern at one and the same time.
Take a peek into the worlds she is creating; just don't forget to come up for air!
Testimonial written by Meera Sethi
