Brian Finke
Untitled (Cheerleading #81)
2002

About the Item

Chromogenic print Signed, numbered, and dated, verso 30 x 30 inches 40 x 40 inches (Total edition of 4 + 2 APs) This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Please note that prices increase as editions sell. Over several years, artist Brian Finke traveled across the United States photographing high school and college level cheerleaders and football players. Mixing artificial and natural light, Finke has developed his own distinctive documentary style. Finke’s work functions on a number of levels. In one sense, these are highly ambivalent images, revealing diversity in uniformity, as manifested by the construction of individual identities in the image of the team. Addressing social behaviors, self-definition, and sexuality, the artist documents the rocky trail of adolescence. However, in conveying such, Finke is a master of imbuing his photographs with humor and life. He avoids casting a judgmental eye, choosing rather lighthearted stories told with respect and hilarity. Raised in Texas and schooled in New York City, Brian Finke received his first award for photography at the age of 22, and soon defined himself as a documentary photographer at the World Press Master Class in 2001 for which he was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for Photography in 2004. His cheerleading and football players series produced his first monograph entitled 2-4-6-8: American Cheerleaders & Football Players, which received much attention in New York City and abroad. Finke’s work has taken him throughout the world to photograph and lecture. His photographs have been seen in solo exhibitions in New York City, Los Angeles, Paris, Jacksonville, and Houston, among others, and are in permanent collections worldwide.

Creator:
Brian Finke (1976, American)
Creation Year:
2002
Dimensions:
Height: 40 in (101.6 cm)Width: 40 in (101.6 cm)
Medium:
C Print
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2000-2009
Condition:
Gallery Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU93233219933
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Brian Finke

Photographer Brian Finke's work is a visual culture commentary that focuses on authenticity and the absurdity of everyday life as well as the range of human behavior. A stylized documentarian and trained photojournalist, Finke’s honesty and intimacy in capturing subjects strikes at the core of contemporary life, with a uniquely American point of context and graphic sensibility.

Often by way of boundary-pushing subject matter, Finke challenges viewers to confront what is often right in front of them, with an almost surreal understanding of immediacy, time and place. From street photography to commercial portraiture to fashion editorials, his immersion in culture-at-large creates imagery deeply tied to the political and emotional undertones of the modern world.

A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Finke received a BFA in photography. He is the author of several books, and his first monograph, 2-4-6-8: American Cheerleaders and Football Players (Umbrage Editions, 2003), was named one of the best photography books by American Photo magazine.

Earlier in his career, Finke was one of 12 artists nominated for the International Center for Photography’s annual Infinity Award, and he won a prestigious New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. His work is in nine museum collections in the U.S. and abroad, and he regularly shoots for editorial clients like National Geographic, the New Yorker, and the New York Times as well as commercial clients, including Delta Airlines, Uber Eats and Budweiser.

In addition to photographing his long-term personal projects, Finke is a guest teacher in photography at the International Center for Photography in Manhattan, the New School, Red Hook Labs in Brooklyn and FotoFilmic in Vancouver. A native Texan, he lives in Brooklyn and is passionate about travel, tattoos, barbecue and biking.

Find Brian Finke's color photography, landscape photography and more on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by Brian Finke Studio)