Justine Kurland

Justine Kurland is known for fabricating fantasy worlds in her photography by placing the nude figure within lavish landscapes, creating idealistic settings occupied by mystical characters. She gained notoriety from participating in the group show Another Girl, Another Planet in 1999, shortly after completing her MFA at Yale University where she studied under famous photographers like Gregory Crewdson and Philip-Lorca diCorcia. For the show, Kurland worked with adolescent girls, depicting them in secret, sometimes dicey locations, so that they appear as wanderlusts or runaways from the confines of society.

Recently Kurland has continued to work in large-format photography, but she has moved on to the mature female nude, specifically working with pregnant or nursing women paired with their small children. For these projects, she focuses on maternity and feminine independence. However, she has not limited herself to only female characters and also works with both men and women in utopian communes. She has had several solo shows and has worked on everything from published books to the cover and liner notes for the French electronic band M83.