Brooke Shaden was born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, near the Amish Country. She holds two degrees from Temple University, one in film and another in English.
The square format and heavy texture in her work are intended to create a painterly aesthetic that defeats certain boundaries of photography. Using these tools, she creates new worlds through her images.
Self portraiture does not need to be autobiographical, says Shaden, who uses it instead to place herself in unfamiliar or unreal places, often inside-out or idealized. In her work she struggles to define what it means to be human.
Shaden currently lives in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited locally and internationally.