Abstract

Subject. Object. Thing. is part of an accumulating record of self-construction and self-reflection. The work considers the complications of visibility through self-portraiture, how the desire to be seen exists alongside the impulse to withhold, obscure, and substitute. Working across photography, performance, collage, and sculptural constructions made for the camera, I fragment, disassemble, and reconfigure my body as photographic subject and material. This exploration is structured around a series of oppositions; concealment/exposure, anonymity/specificity, subject/object, naked/nude, and destruction/reconstruction. I do not attempt to resolve these oppositions. Instead, I consider where these categories blur, contradict themselves, and become unstable. Central to this inquiry is the concept of “thingness” which emerges as both a byproduct of my working method and a way to think outside the fixed positions of subject and object. Cut paper limbs, scraps of reworked prints, bits of wood, are all fragments that frequently stand in for my body without fully representing it. Thingness offers a way to resist the demand for legibility and the expectation of full disclosure that so often accompanies photographing oneself. Ultimately, this project is rooted in the negotiation of visibility, agency, and the shifting ground between being seen and withholding.

Publication Date

5-1-2026

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

Catherine Zuromskis

Advisor/Committee Member

Juan Orrantia

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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