Conrad Valone is a San Francisco based, but often itinerant, fine artist. The twenty-two-year-old photographer graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018. Much of her work is centered on a stripped-back interpretation of the place in her mind where memories and nightmares collide. Her highly stylized photographs often appear to be moments of quiet, and her models stoic and forlorn. While still an emerging artist, Valone is internationally published with her work appearing in museums, galleries, and magazines from New York to London to Rome.
Human.
The photographs in Human are stylized portraiture inspired by paintings of the Baroque period. These staged images implement dramatic realism as used in Caravaggio’s The Calling of St. Matthew. The strong directional lighting of that work gives the scene a sense of being unnatural even though all figures appear true to life. While keeping the classic deep rich tones of the style, Human tends to trade some of the elegance for moments that are instead unsettling. All the photos in this body of work are a reference to a lack of tenderness towards one’s own fragility. To me, these portraits are meant to embody the weakness that is the refusal to admit fragility.
To view more of Conrad Valone’s work please visit their website.