Brooke DiDonato (b. 1990) is a visual artist from Ohio now based in New York.
After studying photojournalism, DiDonato began developing a body of personal work questioning the notion of realism induced by the photographic medium. Her images propose scenes of everyday life distorted by visual anomalies. Extreme landscapes and domestic spaces stand in for the subconscious mind while bizarre scenarios call into question the boundaries of reality.
Her series of self-portraits “A House Is Not a Home” has been exhibited throughout the US (The Fence) and is included in the permanent collection at the Southeast Museum of Photography. Her work has also been exhibited internationally, most recently at the KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art in Berlin and Fotografiska in Stockholm.
Tiptoeing between reality and fantasy, photographer Brooke DiDonato’s images are unfolding stories that viewers find themselves in the middle of. Seeped in pastel colours, often featuring flowers or set in domestic settings, DiDonato’s photographs are nevertheless neither soothing nor uplifting, as there’s always something a little out of kilter, some minor inconsistency or dream-like bizarreness that subtly brings out the uncanny out of the banal. Exploring narratives about vulnerability, instability and self-destruction, her images challenge human perception: Rather than asking viewers to distinguish between fact and fiction, they urge them instead to merge them into a story of personal reflection.
“I like subverting the ordinary,” says DiDonato. “I think one of my favourite comments I’ve started receiving on my work in more recent years is, ‘I can’t figure out what’s going on here.’ I love that, because universal things like an empty field or a human body are transformed into something the viewer has to dissect a bit longer.”
As Usual
October 2021 – October 2022
Clervaux – cité de l’image, Luxembourg
NUDE
February 2022 – May 2022
Fotografiska, New York, NY
NUDE
September 2021 – November 2021
Fotografiska, Stockholm, Sweden
le jardin secret de brooke didonato
May 2021 – June 2021
Galerie Sellem, Paris, France
Overmydeadbody
February 2020 – March 2020
The Luggage Store, San Francisco, CA
When Flowers Save Us
June 2019 – July 2019
Le Purgatoire, Paris, France
Ethereal: A Daily Poetry
May 2019
Galerie Joseph Turenne, Paris, France
Routinized Absurdity
September 2018 – February 2019
KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
As Usual
August 2018 – February 2019
The Fence by Photoville, Traveling Exhibition, US
Month of Photography Los Angeles
August 2018
The Line Hotel, Los Angeles, CA
A House Is Not a Home
August 2017 – February 2018
The Fence by Photoville, Traveling Exhibition, US
Obscurely Prophetic
August 2017
Delphian Gallery, London, UK
A House Is Not a Home
March 2017 – April 2017
Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, FL
Select Clients
Apple
Hermès
Adobe
Burberry
Coach
D La Repubblica
Gucci
iGNANT
Refinery29
Libération
Maison Kitsuné
The New Yorker
Penguin Books
Philosophie Magazine