Family photographs are a beautiful thing — how else can you capture such singular moments in life? But Brooklyn artist Annie Sklaver is elevating their beauty to the next level with her unique paper-cut portraits. As she describes them, her works are “carefully crafted 3-D portraits based on a photograph using a collage of patterns, colors and shapes and shadows to evoke a particular moment in time.”
What makes her work different is that while they capture the essence of the moment, they’re beautifully simple. “The portraits don’t have facial features or small details, so my clients are always amazed when their portrait looks exactly like them and has so much emotion,” the 27-year-old says. “I use shadows very carefully to capture movement and depth, and the 3-D aspect really allows the portrait to come alive in the frame.”
She continues: “Since I focus on body language, and the way people touch or lean on each other, you see the little things that are unique to that specific relationship. All of a sudden you notice how they position themselves in relation to each other, and the image becomes a lot more intimate.”
The burgeoning artist currently works on her commissions after getting home from her day job as a market researcher. Sklaver tells us the majority of her orders are intended to be a first wedding anniversary gift (they are made out of paper, after all).
“This is a side project, but it channels a creative energy that I will always feel,” she says. “Someday, I hope that this energy will lead me to illustrate a children’s book — or a lot of children’s books.”
