Contemporary Portrait Presentation

Biography
Anna Gaskell was born in 1969 in Des Moines, Iowa. At the commencement of her college career she stayed in Des Moines and attended a small school called Bennington College. Shortly thereafter, she left Iowa to pursue her dreams in art. She ended up at the Art Institute of Chicago where she graduated in 1992. Significantly, she then went on to study art at Yale and earned her MFA in 1995. She was born and raised in the early part of her life in Iowa. She now lives and works in new York City.

Significance
Anna is known for some recent works that depict some of the characters from Alice in Wonderland. Her style is known to be somewhat erotic, but also violent. Often she will take unique angles and close ups which are very dramatic. Some of her works are compared to horror movies because of this distinct style.

Composition
The way Anna frames pictures seems to be at strange angles and does include much symmetry. A lot of times, she seems to push subjects off to the side of the frame to almost create an illusion or mystery in her pictures. The angles are created with both the surroundings as well as the people in the photographs.

Concept
Many of the pictures she is known for are with women in strange, but erotic poses. One of the most notable was a girl sitting awkwardly on some steps with a dress on. It seems as though she is almost attempting to introduce some seduction, but still innocence in these photographs. They seem to have a naive feel to them. Her images make you wonder what is wrong with the character or if they need help in some way.

Method
Anna uses light angles which seem to emphasize her subjects in this mysterious way. Many times the lighting will come from below to illuminate the face from below. Most of her photographs do not give complete exposure to the subjects face, but rather creates shadows. Lastly, she has very stark contrasts throughout her photographs. The sky or forest seem to be common.

Motivations
She seems to want to communicate distorted views of her subjects so as to say something about herself. The mystery and almost discomfort can be felt when looking at her work.

Opinion
At first I really liked some of her photographs because of the strange lighting and feel that each subject seemed to have. The more I researched and found out about her style, the more creepy and uncomfortable I feel. These images definitely invoke emotions in a way that other photographs have not done before. I can't say that I would purchase her work for my house, but I think it creates enough interest for me to want to see more.