Fine Art nominee

This is a conceptual self portrait. My work mainly revolves around overcoming fear and the character finding identity. This is the second conceptual piece I created. The idea behind it was very much about how I was feeling at the time. The story was the girl had let fear control her life. It created a box around her. She let the fear grow so big that it began growing around her and trap her inside. All she wanted was to break free. In this moment she's made the decision to leave her box and break free.

Lauren is a conceptual fine art photographer. She grew up in Illinois and was encouraged to be creative by her grandmother. After taking a film class in high school, Lauren fell in love with photography, and her passion for creating grew from there.

After obtaining her bachelor's degree from Illinois State University, she started a portrait business, but she felt like something was missing. Lauren had always been drawn to conceptual dark art and in 2016 she decided to create her first conceptual self-portrait. This ignited a new spark within her and she's been chasing it ever since.

Lauren creates dark dreamlike self-portraits. Through each image, she's finding her own identity and hopes to connect with others and inspire them to do the same.

Lauren has had 2 of her images selected to be book covers. She has been featured in Stubborn Magazine, ArtAscent Magazine and Dark Beauty Magazine's online gallery. She won first place in Turner Center for the Arts - Spring Into Art Exhibition.