Age and Birthday: 29, January 23, 1979
Temper: Finn is an artistic man. He doesn’t quite have the artistic temperament, in fact if anything he tends towards the practical. He took up freelance photography as a way to make money through college (he was getting an art degree), and stuck with it after because it paid well. He even took some jobs upon his return to New York that he wasn’t particularly pleased with, in order to help support the family while his father was sick. He’s a little on the blunt side. He says things that he doesn’t quite mean in the way that he says them, but he is honest at least. He’s typically even-tempered, but if he becomes angry he holds on to the anger, and he has been known to blow up.
Bio: Brian Finn Fitzpatrick, Jr. was not the child that his father wanted. He wasn’t interested in sports or in business, he didn’t lend himself to science or politics, or anything that really sold well on Wall Street. He was an artist, to the core. He wasn’t even the typical oldest child. He didn’t become a mirror image of his father and serve as a second-in-command when he would be away on business. In fact, Brian was much more like his mother, and was much more favored by his mother as a result.
Brian was the first child born into the Fitzpatrick clan, though he was only eleven months apart from his sister Lizzy. As a result, the two are particularly close. They’re not twins, but they’re pretty close, occasionally to the point of finishing each others’ sentences (which they both find terribly creepy). Brian actually discovered his love for photography as a result of his sister. When the two were young, they would beg their mom to let them go to the museum for the day. It mostly had nothing to do with going to the museum, and everything to do with getting out from under supervision for a few hours. They didn’t have a particular museum that they picked more often (though the Gug, MOMA, and the MET were favorites), but over time Brian fell in love with more and more of the photography his was exposed to—he loved the various historical photographs of world events and famous people, he loved Mapplethorpe’s portraits of flowers and men, but most of all he loved the architectural shots of Albert Levy. Brian was in love with photography.
He got his first camera when he was thirteen. It was a Polaroid, a gift from his uncle Eddie which he absolutely worshipped. He went through multiple cartridges of film a day in the summer, using his allowance and what money he could earn in order to feed his art. When he was fifteen, he saved up enough to get his first real film camera—and his Polaroid was passed down to his siblings. He also started taking art and photography in his extracurricular classes at school. He became very good, his art was featured in school wide and regional art shows. His mother was ecstatic, but his father had little to say. He had little to say, that is, until Brian was accepted into NYU. His father was at first excited, but quickly became unhappy. Brian wouldn’t be studying business or economics. He would be studying art. The resulting fight caused Brian Jr. to start going by Finn, and Finn would never again live under the Fitzpatrick roof.
Finn graduated from NYU with honors. He had a budding career in freelance photography and he used it to travel the country. He moved around, but never really settled, visiting New Orleans (pre and post Katrina), Los Angeles, New Mexico, and more exotic locations like São Paulo and Prague and London. London, it turned out, would become his second home. He set up and stayed there, working for the publications and newspapers around there, and never visiting home until November of 2007 when his mom called and told him that his father was sick. Finn moved home within the week.
It wasn’t difficult for him to get work. In fact, as soon as he was in town he began to be booked for editorials and other similar freelance work. It would have been more poignant if it hadn’t been for his father’s failing health. Finn remembers his father’s death and funeral with a kind of numbness. He still hasn’t really faced the event.
Habits: Finn is a perfectionist. Though the portraits and photo shoots he does for a living are not his dream, he is extremely meticulous with them. He is even more careful with the art that he does for himself on the side. He keeps a very clean house, a result of the fact that his studio apartment also sometimes serves as his art studio, depending on the shoot he is working on.
Quirks: He tries particularly hard to not be like his father, however unfortunately, the men shared a lot of personality traits. Finn is very dedicated to his career and will put most anything in front of it. He has yet to find himself in an important relationship and his mom blames his work above everything (though she is grateful that Finn is at least honest about his ambition).
Description: Finn is a decent mixture of both of his parents. He has his mother’s eyes and gentle face, but his father’s blockier build. He is muscular almost despite himself—he tries to stick to a workout routine, but he often finds himself inconsistent. His style of photography can be very physical, thankfully, and that contributes to his strong arms and physique. He often, also, forgets to eat while he works. This concentration is most effective in that it prevents him from gaining weight as well as any workout could.
Finn is habitually casual, though his style can be kind of odd and mismatched from time to time. A model he was photographing once described him as boho-chic because he had worn a particular scarf with a particular jacket. He doesn’t think it describes his common state, however. He typically can be found in a t-shirt and jeans, possibly with a sweater or a sport coat over top.