Sparrow Lane

NY Magazine's Vulture newsletter just alerted me to these photograph's by a photographer named Holly Andres, which will be featured at the Robert Mann Gallery through December 6. Her series titled Sparrow Lane features exquisite 60's fashion with brightly saturated colors that Joan Holloway could easily fit into and story lines taken from youth mystery novels such as Nancy Drew. I love the faces on all of the girls in the photos. They look so honestly scared and confused, and I want to know what's in the secret drawers and behind the freaky picture frames they're slowly pulling open! They also kind of remind me of when my sister and I were little and we'd play murderer--or rather, I'd tell her there was a murderer in the house and she'd run screaming for her life and I'd stand there buckled over with evil laughter. I know, I know but it was SOOO so easy.

Here's a little info on the artist:
Holly Andres's first solo exhibition in New York will feature photographs from the series Sparrow Lane, including the debut of new works in the series. Displaying a rich understanding of color and composition, Andres's tableaux depict young women on the threshold of adulthood, propelled by their curiosity and sense of discovery. Sparrow Lane is a strange yet familiar world filled with floral wallpapers, satin dresses, vanity mirrors, and family photos in gilded frames — the trappings of adolescence in a bygone age.

Drawing equally upon Hitchcockian cinematic tropes and Nancy Drew dust jackets, Andres's stunning photographs plumb psychological depths that are as quixotic as they are visually seductive. Her protagonists seem caught in states of hyper-self-consciousness: suspicious of watching eyes out of frame, their stiff gestures betray their vulnerability. On the brink of discovery — at that awkward age when one is no longer a child, but not yet fully an adult — these heroines appear as much posed as poised. Their snooping is comprised of small transgressions borne of a strong dose of curiosity, incidents along the way to some personal revelation.

Take a look at a few of these beauties below and you can find out more information about Holly Andres and her show here.