Artist Profile: Photographer Damien Rudd

A recent graduate from the University of Melbourne's photography program, Damien Rudd's oldest work dates back only to 2010, but in two years he's managed to create an impressive body of work with a distinctive voice. Among (we feel) his best work is "The sexual behavior of young people," a series inspired by a 1968 book of the same name.

Each of his series seeks to explore some major idea like death, time or love. Whatever his initial impulse is, however, we're far more interested in his use of color and soft light. His tone and composition vacillates between William Eggleston's alternately bright and muted snapshots to small scale Gregory Crewdson's in the striking use of artificial lighting and purposeful compositions. Some of his images take a different turn, integrating geometry, as in "Attraction and Repulsion" or, one of our personal favorites, "Taken Only Road." (We sincerely urge you to seek them out.)

It's thrilling to catch onto an artist when they're just striking out, and Rudd is definitely one to watch. Feeling particularly inspired by Rudd's work below, go ahead and peruse one of our Photography classes.  Though first: