Arsenic and Old Lace
These imaginary scenes depict women’s struggle with domestic perfection
By Dee Sawnn and Patty Carroll
As coronavirus cases continue to rise in the United States and people spend more and more time quarantined in their homes, many of us can relate to the situations that photographer Patty Carroll depicts in her scenes of domestic life. Carroll has found, now more than ever, that her work resonates with women as they commit more time to the kinds of activities portrayed in her photos.
In Carroll’s four-part photographic series “Anonymous Women,” she has sought to illuminate the everyday heroic women who juggle home, family and, often, careers. She addresses the complicated relationship that women have with domestic life in the fourth book in her series, “Domestic Demise.”
Domestic Demise
9 x 9 inches, 96 pages: $40
Published by Aint–Bad
“I create and photograph imaginary worlds in the studio that debunk, critique and satirize claustrophobic expectations of domestic perfection. This series is a humorous yet critical look at how women continue to strive for perfection in our homes and selves, an unending, frustrating and fruitless endeavor, in spite of contemporary life and careers,” Carroll said.
For 30 years, Carroll has been known for her vibrant and intense color images. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago has influenced much of her work, but she also finds inspiration in colorful vintage movies, decorating magazines and from the game of Clue. In an 8-by-8-foot studio space, Carroll creates elaborate, imagined home scenes with mannequins as her subjects. She photographs them being engulfed by the items around them with her digital Hasselblad camera.
Continue reading on The Washington Post.
Blues
Scrapbooking
Eden
Cooking the Goose
View more work by Patty Carroll on her Artist Page.