Kate Shannon is a digital artist and photographer. She earned her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts in Photography from The University of Kentucky and her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Photography from Ohio State University. Kate is currently an assistant professor of Art at Ohio State University where she teaches digital imaging, photography, and multimedia courses. Some of Kate's accomplishments include The Ohio State University Mansfield Campus Excellence in Teaching Award in 2010 and her work has been on display most recently at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Woman Made Gallery in Chicago,and the 2010 Midwestern Society of Photographic Educator’s conference in Kalamazoo.
In her latest exhibition titled WhiteOuts from her series From within the happy crowd, Kate photographed various types of people at carnivals, fairs and amusement parks and then removed them from their background and replaced it with white. The subjects in these photos have varied placement within the picture plane and were all taken with a up looking perspective. The colors are very vivid especially because they have been removed from their busy backgrounds.
Removing the subjects from their backgrounds creates a distant and disoriented feeling. The people who would otherwise look very regular and natural in their own environment become completely different entities with only a white background as any sort of reference. Their facial expressions and almost blank stares create a mysterious relationship between the people and their surroundings.
Her technical abilities in altering the photographs backgrounds is impeccable. When I first saw the series in the gallery before hearing of Kate's work in class, I had no idea how she made these images. Then when I saw the original photographs with their environments and learned Kate digitally separated the two layers I was completely impressed at her perfection and that she fooled me into thinking she had photographed these people in front of a white backdrop.
After reading her artist statement and some info about this series on Kate's website I realized that I was interrupting her vision completely wrong. These photographs capture peoples journey through life to find happiness. By removing the people from context it gives a more general feel and makes it easier to relater to one's own life. Kate does state that these are transitional moments and that these people are somewhat lost and this as well as the absence of any environment, may be why I felt uneasy when looking at them.
Overall I am not really sure how I feel about this series of photographs. My first interpretation of Kate Shannon's concept and her actual intent were very different. I felt more anxious and curious by the white backgrounds and I did not really see "the pursuit of happiness". I do enjoy these photographs and I don't think I would change anything but I do perceive them very differently then Kate's original intent.
