Brian Oldham: Conceptual View on Human Sexuality

Queer Interdisciplinary Artist

Brian Oldham was born in Orange, CA in 1993. He grew up as the only child, who was looking for creative and artistic ways to express himself. He was playing fictional and fairy tales games, that helped him to develop imagination. At the age of 16, Brian’s love for art and fantasy finally got an actual form when he discovered a potential that gives conceptual photography. As a self-taught photographer, Brian used different resources to develop photography skills. Today, Brian is recognized as a queer interdisciplinary artist, currently based in Los Angeles. He specialized in portrait photography and conceptual photography and found a distinctive way to express his imagination and talent.

Inspiring 365 Days Project by Brian Oldham – How the Magic Started?

Brian’s first steps in the world of contemporary photography happened in interesting circumstances. He saw Rosie Hardy’s Flickr stream and got inspired. While he was looking at photos made day-by-day, Brian spotted constant improvement of the photographer’s skills.

I wanted to be able to create something that could tell a story and speak to people like Hardy’s work does.

From that moment, the young photographer realized that photography is his vocation. Brian started his own 365-day project. He knew only basic stuff about the shooting, and during this project, he learned a lot of new things. The photographer’s inspiration for shooting came random and he was writing ideas with the agenda to release them when the time comes. These first self-portraits helped the artist to develop photography skills and learn about post-production, providing an artistic way to express himself.

Discursive Portraits by Conceptual Photographer

Brian Oldham works as a freelance art photographer as well as a fashion photographer. His portraits are imbued with both realism and fantasy. The photographer’s idea is to experiment with strange things to invoke our imagination. We cannot stay indifferent while watching realistic subject and a dreamlike world in his portraits.

I strive to recreate in my own conceptual images – a sort of ‘magical realism’.

His latest work, such as a series of photos called “Boys will be boys“, represents the photographer’s view on human sexuality. Brian emphasizes people’s varying sexual and gender identities in the series of portraits of men. The ironically titled series seeks to showcase the fluidity of gender and deviations from societal expectations of masculinity and binary.