Abstract

Within Trail of a Swarm the photograph is used as a portal through which a new visual world can be discovered and explored by the viewer. The images take the form of desolate, abstracted landscapes articulated by paths of light and dark, and ranging from the highly saturated color photographs, to the subdued and black and white photographs. Also portrayed, in similarly abstracted form, are the inhabitants of this world - the remainders of the masses: humans, animals, and insects - subjects we commonly perceive as ordinary, appear alien. Artifacts within these images are also treated with an alike peculiar perspective raising questions regarding their origins. Time is similarly treated, removed from its linear flow, as these images simultaneously allude to both a potentially fabricated past and a foreboding future. The variety, or even oppositional qualities within these images is necessary in order to formulate images that reference this entanglement across multiple layers of time. Trail of a Swarm conveys an environment ridden with traces left to be discovered and discerned.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Photography, Artistic; Photography, Abstract; Artists' books; Photobooks

Publication Date

5-1-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Imaging Arts (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

School of Photographic Arts and Sciences (CIAS)

Advisor

Christine Shank

Advisor/Committee Member

Willie Osterman

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

IMGART-MFA

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