Sep 20

Haleigh Lennox Brewer

Haleigh Lennox Brewer is a conceptual photographer who has exhibited mainly in North Carolina. Her exhibitions include displays with Yosemite Sierra Artists collective in California, several shows with East Carolina University including a solo exhibit, and triple showings at FRANK Community Gallery in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Haleigh remains a member of The Society for Photographic Education and was a member of the Photo Guild at East Carolina University. Publications include inclusion of several volumes in Ampersand, a graduate publication at East Carolina University, as well as The Daily Tar Heel, and by Duke University.

As a photographer who delves into personal perspective, she typically incorporates various props, memorabilia, and staged scenery to convey a message about individualism. As a twin, Haleigh describes growing up with societal pressure to be identical in every way to her sister. Her work, as a result, explores expressions of individuality through both dark and melancholy atmospheres.

The photography communicates a search for personal identity and purpose often through the use of still life. Through mementos such as lockets of hair, vintage postcards, blue velvet, and even modified produce, Haleigh sets up these objects to convey a sense of disappointment with society, as if collectivity holds her back from individuality. While many conceptual photographers engage in grand theatrics, Haleigh communicates through minimal placement and improvised objects such as spilled salt on imagery and velvet or even violent implications with the use of scissors in one’s hand. What remains striking is how ordinary the settings are presented as there remains no sense of altering her environments or concepts of fashion, whether through presenting cozy, modest middle class interiors and homes, generic landscapes, or depictions of figures in modest outfits. These works are meant to communicate unusual interactions in familiar environments as she tries to have the art relate to the viewer.

I Never Liked Tomatoes (pictured above) communicates so much while using so little. Here remains a display of a cramped and cropped dining area with rural and countryside furnishings portraying two plates of tomato sandwiches with a farm-like display of tomatoes on the table. One sandwich becomes revealed with just one bite taken while the other plate remains empty with the sandwich completely eaten, with just hints of crumbs. As if societal pressure induced Haleigh to take one bite, the autobiographical piece reveals a reluctance to hide displeasure (in the case of disliking tomatoes) for the sake of conformity. A photograph which conveys a sense of rebelliousness using ordinary, familiar objects and subtle theatrics.

Haleigh Lennox Brewer creates intimate compositions which reflect minimal imagery engagement with deep philosophical implications. She encourages us to explore our individuality and break through societal pressures through the metaphor of her upbringing as a twin. Haleigh explores the realms of personal identity, not through veneer or grandiosity, but through subtle metaphor provoking the viewer to analyze and question or investigate their surrounding environments.