Born in Austin, Texas and raised in Los Angeles, photographer Laurie Brown currently lives and works in Newport Beach, California. The photographer is best known for her images of man-made elements colliding with the natural environment.
Laurie Brown earned her Bachelor of Art in International Relations from Scripps College in Claremont, California and went on to attain her Master of Fine Arts from California State University at Fullerton. Brown was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant in 1978 and was named Outstanding Individual Artist of the year by the ARTS Orange County in 2002. The photographer’s work is centralized around “terraforming,” which is the creation of unnatural landscapes, rolling hills and scenic features, created with massive earth-moving equipment. Images from the artist’s repertoire represent human impact on natural settings. Talking about her work, Brown has stated, “the meeting of nature and civilization is where the moment of change happens.”
The artist’s focus on fabricated elements within a natural environment can be seen in her photograph in the Escalette Collection of Art at Chapman University. Convergence #13 is an image comprised of three photographs: the two smaller photos represent the transformed landscape before development while the central image depicts a line of homes that have been unnaturally placed into a previously untouched setting.
All text and images under copyright. Please contact collections@chapman.edu for permission to use. Information subject to change upon further research.
Text revised 12-05-2014
