Kathy, Bird Sanctuary (Gravesite), Chatham, NY, from the series Sugar Camp Road
Artist
Katy Grannan
(American, born 1969)
Date2003
MediumColor coupler print mounted on Sintra
Edition 3/6 + 2 AP
Dimensions48 × 60 inches (121.9 × 152.4 cm)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineThe Ames Family Collection of Contemporary Photography
Terms
- Photographs
- Girls
- Trees
- Hair
- Rock
- Clothing
- American
Object number2007.065
Label CopyKaty Grannan became known in the late 1990s for creating large-scale black-and-white and color portraits of people who answered ads she placed in newspapers: “Art Models. Artist/Photographer (female) seeks people for portraits. No experience necessary. Leave msg.” By allowing her models to choose how they wanted to be photographed, the portraits became true collaborations between photographer and sitter. For her 2003 series Sugar Camp Road, Grannan photographed her models outdoors—in parks, forests, or along country roads. Many of her models chose to be nude or seminude, and almost all of them chose provocative poses. Capturing the tension between courage and vulnerability Grannan’s portraits empathize with her sitters’ humanity.
Grannan, Justine Kurland, and other Yale graduates studied with Gregory Crewdson and focused on female subjects in the early 2000s. Working more like movie directors than traditional photographers—much like their teacher—these so-called “girl photographers” didn’t feel obliged to record reality but instead created their own. ("Staged, Performed, Manipulated," curated by Andrea Inselmann and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 - June 7, 2015)
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