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Knowing her friend’s appetite for rough-hewn landscape and the minutia of family networks, Aisling Farinella invited photographer Linda Brownlee to visit her relatives in the Sicilian village of Gangi. This was to be the first of numerous trips and 3 years later the resulting photo book is about to be released.
The family are presented to us in relaxed portraits and candid shots that criss-cross households and generations. Daily and seasonal rituals are shared as birthday candles are blown out, graves are tended and local asparagus is charred. We accompany Brownlee as she journeys through the surrounding landscape via ruptured roads, foggy elevations and paths carpeted with over-ripe fruit. She has the advantage of observing from the periphery of course, but it is undoubtedly her tender curiosity that brings us around the mountain, down the winding village streets and through the front door.
Linda Brownlee was born in Dublin, gained a BA (Hons) in Communications at DCU before moving to London where she is currently based. Linda has directed four commercials for Barclays and BBH in the last year. She is a director and photographer, and her portrait, fashion and documentary work has featured regularly in publications such as Dazed & Confused, Vogue, The New York Times, The Guardian and Telegraph magazines.
Linda’s photographs have been exhibited at London’s National Portrait Gallery as part of the Taylor Wessing Prize, The Photographers Gallery, the Gallery of Photography in Dublin, the Yinka Shonebare Space, Host Gallery, and the Nottingham Castle Art Gallery. Linda’s first book, and the work of her first solo exhibition at the Architectural Association in 2011, was Achill, a portrait of a group of teenagers in a raw and unpredictable island landscape.
Linda’s first short film, Limber Notes – Olivier, debuted on Nowness in August 2013. It is one of a series of works she has produced with people who love to dance. Since then she has been commissioned to make three more films for the online platform.
Drawn to all sorts of communities and cultures, Linda’s work conveys the unique energy of the many people and places she visits with a camera.
