Abstract

My Two Bodies examines the intersection of visibility, memory, and gendered absence through photographic and material strategies. Engaging with censorship and instability of the image, it investigates how realities are shaped by what is seen, obscured, or erased. Referencing the gendered absence of women in Iranian visual culture, the project considers how censorship intensifies rather than eliminates visibility. Drawing from Jacques Derrida’s concept of hauntology, absence is approached not as a void but as an active presence that disrupts the surface of the image. Through processes such as collage, projection, and fabric-based image making, photographs are treated as tactile, mutable objects. Material in this project functions as a conduit for physical connection with images, challenging the separation between vision and touch, reconsidering how absence is materially and sensorially experienced.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Photography, Artistic--Themes, motives; Absence in art; Women--Iran--Social conditions--Pictorial works

Publication Date

5-1-2025

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

Ahndraya Parlato

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

IMGART-MFA

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