Cassandra Klos (b. 1991) is a Boston-based artist. Born and raised in New Hampshire, she earned her BFA in 2014 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her photographs have been featured in group exhibitions across the region and in a solo exhibition at the Piano Craft Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts. She is the first prize recipient of the Yousuf Karsh Prize in Photography for her project, The Abductees.
The Abductees
“Betty and Barney Hill were an interracial couple whose lives were forever altered after their controversial alien abduction in 1961. Abducted at night while driving through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Hills’ were ridiculed and cast out of their community when the news broke to the local media. Some said they were Communists seeking attention, some believed they were abducted by the Russians, others believed the Hills’ views on interracial marriage drove them to insanity.
Without any “real” proof, the event would only live in the Hills’ minds as memories.
Despite the backlash, the Hills’ extensive report with the United States Air Force (which includes psychological evaluations, maps, letters, and drawings) illustrates an event grounded in reality.
The project, The Abductees, uses archival documentation of their case and historical references from the era of which they lived to create a portal into the Hills’ version of this story. The authenticity of a photograph not only creates a moment bound in truth, but demands for the atonement for the hardships Betty and Barney faced during their lifetime.”
To view more of Cassandra’s work please visit his website.