Shaun Pierson's cinematic memories

Shaun Pierson is an American photographer whose series Alvine Road has been getting some attention on a variety of photography websites (BOOOOOOOM, C41, FotoRoom)

His highly cinematic images explore memories of his childhood, family, and romantic relationships through images that feel both genuine and heightened in a way unique to memories and dreams. Pierson creates a unique visual world populated with specific characters and compositions that feel both carefully composed and haphazardly in the moment.

I prefer to stage my images almost like movie stills. I work best when I have total control over the image and by posing the subjects in the photos, I feel like I have greater flexibility in terms of my subject matter and what I want to discuss with that specific photo. With Alvine Road, I wanted a certain level of ambiguity that I felt like I couldn’t quite get by using a snapshot aesthetic. Each of the photos in this series is very specific to me, but I don’t want to totally let the viewer in on that specificity. I want there to be an open-ended aspect to it, to maintain that mystery.

Shaun Pierson (VIA Fotoroom)