ATARAH atkinson

About

I grew up in the redwoods of Northern California, where my first real encounter with photography was my mother's 35mm archive - boxes of ordinary moments that somehow felt enormous. I was drawn to how a single frame could hold a whole experience, a whole feeling, and its memory long after it had passed. I studied photography at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, graduated with honors, and moved to Brooklyn in 2015, where I've worked ever since. My creative practice spans both commercial fashion work and fine art photography, each allowing me to build a world around an image, with every choice of light, color, and styling shaping what the viewer feels.

In my fine art practice, I give my photographs physical form, building pieces that sit somewhere between photograph and sculpture, closer to design objects than a simple framed print. To do this, I mix media with my analog photography, using things like steel, fabric, collected objects, and both contemporary and antique frames. I believe what surrounds the image is just as important as the photo itself, and these elements allow me to tell deeper stories. Each material is chosen to do something - metal can hold a quiet strength, fabric can conceal and reveal, an antique frame carries a history of its own. When needed, I work closely with fabricators like metal workers and seamstresses to bring my visions to life. The work is deeply personal, drawn from what I'm living through as I make it. Most of my pieces are one of a kind, a particular image, material, and frame that come together in harmony only once.

In my Brooklyn studio, GalleryATARAH, I'm constantly creating and displaying my work alongside a collection of vintage and antique pieces I curate and source myself. It is there that I welcome private clients and designers to visit and experience the work in person, hoping they will feel an echo of the magic I felt in my mother's archive.