6 spring street
new york city 10012
tel: 212.219.0166
info@jenbekman.com

bret shirely

bio

Bret Shirley spent his formative years cooking up excuses to skateboard the streets of Houston rather than attend his remedial history and English classes at the local high school. In 1998 he enrolled in the history program at University of Houston, but soon found photography to be much less constricting and more accommodating to his busy schedule of naps and eating falafel after falafel. After three years of wading through the stagnant waters of the UH photo program, Bret left to attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he began focusing on the more aesthetically pleasing as well as conceptually charged work that he produces today. Bret’s work has been shown at Denise Ramos Gallery, 1972b Gallery and a convenience store near his old house, and he is a candidate for the 2003 Steve Horn award. He has also been known to take pictures solely so he can write about himself in artist's bios.

statement

The photographs shown here are a small part of an ongoing series that consumes my every thought. I long to demonstrate, in an exaggerated manner, the fact that a photograph is merely a recreation of reality, and not, as we have grown accustomed to assuming, the reality itself. Many take for granted the fact that an image is one person’s point of view and opinion on a subject, and often pass art and imagery off as an objective form. It is this fact that I aim to expose and raise questions about. Through exaggerated distortions and unreal time frames I create my own take on the environment that I "document."