Patty Carroll has been known for her use of highly intense, saturated color photographs since the 1970’s. Her most recent project, “Anonymous Women,” consists of a 3-part series of studio installations made for the camera, addressing women and their complicated relationships with domesticity. By camouflaging the figure in drapery and/or domestic objects, Carroll creates a dark and humorous game of hide-and-seek between her viewers and the Anonymous Woman. The photographs are exhibited in large scale and is published as a monograph by Daylight Books (released January, 2017.) The Anonymous Woman series has been exhibited internationally and has won multiple awards including Carroll being acknowledged as one of Photolucida’s “Top 50” in 2104 and 2017. Carroll has taught photography for many years and enthusiastically returned to the studio in order to delight viewers with her playful critique of home and excess.
Anonymous Women: Demise
Anonymous Women: The subject is the conflation of woman and home. The woman is camouflaged among her domestic objects, activities, and obsessions. The still-life narratives comment on the mania of collecting, accumulating, and decorating a home. In this series, the woman becomes a victim of her home and is crushed by her own possessions or activities, leading to her demise, with scenes of heartbreaking mishaps and horror!
Growing up in suburban Chicago provides the basis of my work, and I continually address myths of perfection and illusion. I am photographically creating worlds that critique and satirize claustrophobic expectations that women continue to embrace, in spite of contemporary life and careers.
To view more of Patty’s work please visit her website.