Class Note 1997
Issue
Mar - Apr 2017
BreeAnne Clowdus is making quite a name for herself as a photographer in Atlanta. She recently was featured in an ArtsATL story highlighting her work on publicity stills and posters for local productions from Assassins to Miss Saigon. BreeAnne may be best known for her stunning photograph of a solitary female figure bathed in icy blue light for the Serenbe Playhouse’s production of The Snow Queen, adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen fable that inspired Disney’s Frozen. The production completed its fourth holiday season on December 30.
BreeAnne told ArtsATL that she saw Frozen five or six times before taking her brother, Brian, who is the Serenbe Playhouse’s founder and artistic director, to see it several more times together. She said that the message about the redemptive power of love and sacrifice between siblings appealed to the pair because of the close bond they share. But BreeAnne chose to highlight another aspect of The Snow Queen for the poster.
“The main character is a girl who must learn to interact with the outside world, even though that world has only hurt her,” she said. “I wanted people to see and feel the visual chilliness of the character. I wanted them to feel her isolation and sense a little bit of danger, like if you touched her, it would cut you.”
BreeAnne recalled her childhood fascination with film, fashion and the red carpet portions of award shows, but it was her weekend job at her mother’s beauty salon in Alabama that may have really shaped BreeAnne’s insight into the human condition.
“I loved hanging out with those hair dressers,” she said of the Saturday job she held from fifth grade until leaving for the College. “They would ask me advice about their relationships when I was 10 years old, and I would absolutely give it. I’d be like, ‘This is ridiculous! Let me explain to you why so-and-so is unworthy of your affection.’ It was exactly what you would think it would be—inappropriate conversations galore.”
Those experiences, along with a devotion to The Oprah Winfrey Show, sensitized BreeAnne to human vulnerability, especially when photographing subjects. “I call it the Pinocchio effect,” she said. “They can be so wooden when they come in, and I’ve got to get them to let go of that and just be real, be themselves.”
Check out the story and some of BreeAnne’s fantastic photographs at www.artsatl.com/photographer-breeanne-clowdus-art-capture-person-facade.
—Jason Casell, 10106 Balmforth Lane, Houston, TX 77096; jhcasell@gmail.com
BreeAnne told ArtsATL that she saw Frozen five or six times before taking her brother, Brian, who is the Serenbe Playhouse’s founder and artistic director, to see it several more times together. She said that the message about the redemptive power of love and sacrifice between siblings appealed to the pair because of the close bond they share. But BreeAnne chose to highlight another aspect of The Snow Queen for the poster.
“The main character is a girl who must learn to interact with the outside world, even though that world has only hurt her,” she said. “I wanted people to see and feel the visual chilliness of the character. I wanted them to feel her isolation and sense a little bit of danger, like if you touched her, it would cut you.”
BreeAnne recalled her childhood fascination with film, fashion and the red carpet portions of award shows, but it was her weekend job at her mother’s beauty salon in Alabama that may have really shaped BreeAnne’s insight into the human condition.
“I loved hanging out with those hair dressers,” she said of the Saturday job she held from fifth grade until leaving for the College. “They would ask me advice about their relationships when I was 10 years old, and I would absolutely give it. I’d be like, ‘This is ridiculous! Let me explain to you why so-and-so is unworthy of your affection.’ It was exactly what you would think it would be—inappropriate conversations galore.”
Those experiences, along with a devotion to The Oprah Winfrey Show, sensitized BreeAnne to human vulnerability, especially when photographing subjects. “I call it the Pinocchio effect,” she said. “They can be so wooden when they come in, and I’ve got to get them to let go of that and just be real, be themselves.”
Check out the story and some of BreeAnne’s fantastic photographs at www.artsatl.com/photographer-breeanne-clowdus-art-capture-person-facade.
—Jason Casell, 10106 Balmforth Lane, Houston, TX 77096; jhcasell@gmail.com