Abstract

Peach Street connects to the universal phenomenon of losing innocence of childhood and navigating the perils and disappointments of the adult world and visualizes my ongoing experience with anxiety and what psychiatrists call derealization, the feeling of being detached from reality. Set in the same location as where I first felt immense panic, my photos create a fictional narrative where a small town, its residents, and the environment are being controlled by a force emanating from the town’s lake. The lake’s aura blinds the residents to its control, forcing them to live in a set way without personal expression or a desire to escape. The protagonist is a nameless girl, played by me, who lives on Peach Street and becomes aware of the lake’s effect and starts to reflect on why she is living this way. Because of her unreliable perception of the world, she must dissect what is real and what is illusion. As she looks closer at the details of her surroundings, she realizes that maybe her own internalized anxiety was the monster all along.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Photography, Artistic--Themes, motives; Staged photography; Anxiety in art; Lakes in art

Publication Date

5-9-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Photography and Related Media (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

Photographic Arts and Sciences, School of

College

College of Art and Design

Advisor

Joshua Thorson

Advisor/Committee Member

Juan Orrantia

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

IMGART-MFA

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