Shanna Allyn is a creative based in Minneapolis. She has a Bachelors in Science & Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Medical Illustration. Allyn lived in New York City before relocating to Minneapolis to begin a series of dynamic portraits. She began directing and photographing unusual and beautiful dead pan portraits, utilizing natural and unnatural objects, backgrounds and landscapes through a series of photographs she calls Strange Beautiful. Currently she is working on a book of the collection to be published soon.
The girl with an egg in her mouth is the first image by Allyn that I remember taking note of. This is truly a series that I feel should be viewed as a series, however. First I saw the egg, then the penny mask, the wigs, on their own each image left me confused. Once viewed as a group I am left curious-an important distinction. I don’t think Allyn could have picked two better words to describe this series: “Strange Beautiful.” We reached out to her to learn more about these images and how they came about. Allyn’s photographs are not the kind we typically see here at National Geographic but they certainly stopped us in our tracks by daring to be different. We love the quirk and the way these made us furrow our brows. They are truly strange, and truly beautiful.
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