Austin Cullen
- Michael Hanna
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Austin Cullen is a documentary photographer who has exhibited across the United States and internationally in Italy, Scotland as well as South Korea. Selected solo exhibitions include LUX Art Center as well as Eisentrager-Howard Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska, Houston Center for Photography, and SRO Photography Gallery at Texas Tech University. Notable collective exhibitions include the Seattle Design Center, Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Complesso della Cavallerizza in Turin, Italy, RIT City Space Gallery in Rochester, New York, and Candela Gallery in Richmond, Virginia. Austin has been published by
Phases Magazine, DITO Publishing, Artistin Square Magazine, Lensratch, and Split Lip Magazine.
Steeped in documentative black and white as well as saturated color photography, Austin Cullen often takes photographs of exhibits he finds in natural history museums and staged or natural phenomena, such as a patch of grass covered by plastic or having his camera immersed among a field of wheat. His documentary photography contains an air of mystery and suspense as he captures cropped intimate scenes of gardens as well as taxidermy sculptures. Austin applies a unique theatrical approach to documentary photography through careful selection of his subject matter as well as compositions.
The steep poetic inclinations contained within Austin Cullen’s works become revealed in the high contrast and selective, silhouetted cropping of his subjects through black and white photographs while using techniques of saturated color and blurred abstraction in his color photography. Austin’s surfaces are often of mystique as he reveals interiors and landscapes which serves as a baseline for an untold narrative revolving around natural substance, whether manipulated and staged or an organic occurrence. These photographs exemplify an investigative approach to contemporary art as he seeks to identify subject matter which offers more questions than answers. Largely devoid of figures, Austin’s narratives become revealed in the dead taxidermal animals or vine-like fauna and foliage contained within his compositions.
Dust Watching #6 (pictured above) depicts what appears to be a display or even garden contained within a quaint interior. Upon closer inspection, the viewer will find the silhouetted leaves act as a composition device to conceal the pristine background of a white marble interior displayed in the distance. A cross between interior and landscape photography, the piece exemplifies Austin’s approach to identifying fascinating, intimate scenes to present a sense of heightened drama and theatrical presentation.
Austin Cullen as a photographer conceals as well as reveals his subjects through intimate compositions as well as selective display formats, high contrast, saturation, and identifying subjects which have a narrative substance. His works convey stories even without typically using the figure to express his scenery. Austin enhances the art of documentary photography through his exciting integrative techniques which conduct a survey on topics such as mortality, melancholy overtures as well as revealing a love for natural history and science. He can be described as an exciting photographer for those seeking contemporary aesthetics, scientific pursuits, or to alter our individual moods and psyche based on atmospheric sensory experiences.
