Laura Larson

Laura Larson (born 1965) is an American photographer based in Athens, Ohio.[2][3]

Laura Larson
Born1965 (age 55–56)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
NationalityAmerican
EducationOberlin College,
Rutgers, State University of New Jersey,
Whitney Museum of American Art
Known forphotography
Notable work
Large Orb (2005),
Emma (2008) Ryan (2008), Boston #205 (2000)[1]
MovementContemporary art
Websitewww.lauralarson.net

Life

Larson earned her BA in English from Oberlin College, her MFA in visual arts at Rutgers, State University of New Jersey and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program.[4] She is a professor in the School of Art + Design at Ohio University.[5]

Art career

Larson identifies herself as a photographer, although her work includes film, video, digital media, and writing. As part of her practice, Larson explores the assumption of photography's purported objectivity by taking documentary and poetic approaches in her work. She deals with issues related to the medium of photography, domestic spaces, her relation to female bodies, and photography's vernacular histories, among others.[6] A recurrent topic in Larson's work is the paranormal. In her video Electric Girls and the Invisible World, she follows a group of five teenage girlfriends and their mysterious connection to the 19th century medium Eusapia Palladino, presenting reflections on female adolescence, melancholy, and longing.[7][8] Electric Girls was supported by a post-production residency for film at the Wexner Center for the Arts.[9]

Larson's work challenges the notion of the medium that “never lies." In her “Domestic Interiors” and “My Dark Places” series, she photographs dollhouse interiors, playing with the viewer's perception of scale.[10]

Larson's “Well-Appointed” series depicts the interior of historical homes, focusing on the lavish furniture and raising questions about wealth and power. Her series “Complementary” captured traces of occupancy in hotel rooms after checkout and before maid service. Larson used the interrelationship of First and Second Wave Feminism as a jumping off point for these four bodies of work, which center around mise en scene, and how the rooms themselves tell a story.[11]

Two related series “Apparition” and “Asylum” focus on the paranormal. Larson created her own spirit photographs, using cigarette smoke to reference the staged spirit photographs of the 19th century.[11][12]

Larson's focus shifted to the representation of the body with her series “Ectoplasm,” referencing the both humorous and moving 19th century photographs of female mediums.[11]

Her book and curated exhibition Hidden Mother (2017) uses portraits of children with "hidden mothers," the term for the practice of concealing a mother's body as she supported her child during the long exposures demanded by early photographic technology, to present her personal experience of motherhood.[13][14][15] As part of this project, Larson curated a traveling exhibition of her extensive collection of 19th century tintypes featuring portraits of children with "hidden mothers."[16][17]

Book
  • Larson, Laura (2017). Hidden Mother. Saint Lucy Books. ISBN 978-0-692-79927-7.

Public collections

Larson's work is held in the following public collections:

References
  1. "Laura Larson". www.artnet.com. Artnet. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  2. "The Moments of Paris". themet.com. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  3. com, brandon sorg - brandonsorg [at] gmail [dot]. "Laura Larson | Blue Sky Gallery". www.blueskygallery.org. Archived from the original on 2017-03-04. Retrieved 2017-03-28.
  4. Whitney Museum of American Art (1991). Bulletin of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Whitney Museum of American Art.
  5. "Laura Larson". Ohio University College of Fine Arts. Ohio University. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  6. "statement | about | Laura Larson". www.lauralarson.net. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  7. "The Tricks and Treats of Occult Photography". The New Yorker. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  8. Mansoor, Jaleh. "Laura Larson". Artforum. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  9. "Laura Larson Electric Girls and the Invisible World". wexarts.org. Archived from the original on 2017-03-04. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  10. Carol Armstrong, Through a Doll's Eye: Laura Larson’s Domestic Interiors, Documents, Issue 11, 1998.
  11. Margaret Sundell, Interview with Margaret Sundell, Photographs 1996-2012 Lennon, Weinberg Gallery, July 10 to September 13, 2014.
  12. "Margaret Sundell on Laura Larson". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  13. Booker, Maia. "Can You Spot the Hidden Women in These 19th Century Photographs?". New Republic. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  14. "Laura Larson Hidden Mother". wexarts.org. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  15. "Hidden Mothers". Aperture Foundation NY. 2018-06-13. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  16. com, brandon sorg - brandonsorg [at] gmail [dot]. "Laura Larson | Blue Sky Gallery". www.blueskygallery.org. Archived from the original on 2017-03-04. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  17. Gilfillan, Jule. "Laura Larson's 'Hidden Mother': A Photographic Exhibition". OPB.com. Oregon Public Broadcasting. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  18. "Splatter". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed 26 March 2018.
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