Carnival
Connell’s decade-long project Double Life appears to document an evolving relationship between two women who are strangely similar in appearance—perhaps identical twins. In fact, the photographs are composed of multiple images of the same model, digitally stitched together into seamless composites. Through carefully controlled lighting, body language, and other subtle visual cues, Connell imbues the pictures with an uncanny intimacy, whether the scene is set in the private space of the bedroom or in the public realm of a small-town carnival. “I often think that my photographs lie as documents but tell the truth as images,” the artist explained in an interview. “There is the essential fiction here that I didn’t photograph two people at the same time and place. But that fiction enables to photographs to portray inner thoughts, vulnerabilities, or memories on the surface.”
Artwork Details
- Title: Carnival
- Artist: Kelli Connell (American, born 1974)
- Date: 2006, printed 2012
- Medium: Chromogenic print
- Dimensions: Image: 91.4 x 121.9 cm (36 x 48 in.)
Frame: 94 × 124.5 cm (37 × 49 in.) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, Charina Foundation Inc. Gift, 2012
- Object Number: 2012.180
- Rights and Reproduction: © Kelli Connell
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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