Final Critique // Photography II

The photographs in this series explore the idea of “home.” Where is home? Who is home? Why? How do we treat our homes? Through a series of still-life photography from found scenes, my photographs illustrate the strange, the flashy, the artificial remnants of the living. By contrasting human nature and unnatural objects, they comment on what is surreal and unnatural about consumer and material culture and the influence that has on a relationship with home. 

These works represent the fleeting nature of life. They take place the morning-after, the afternoon-after.  Each photograph explores the residue we leave behind on the places we call home when life goes on and we choose what to take with us. Through the use of light, these works illustrate a sense of time in a space. The use of color highlights the artifice in an otherwise naturally lit space. Still-life photography references Dutch still life oil painting, bringing to mind connotations of art historical ideas of vanitas and memento mori, thereby highlighting the conceptual ideas of life ending and the rejection of material goods. My photographs aestheticize the subjects into a traditional still life while making the viewer feel like they are amongst the mess with a view on life as cluttered as the space called home.