K A T Y G R A N N A N
Canadian Photographer, born in 1969
This week I wanted to find a female artist to learn more about, and I came across Katy Grannan. She received her bachelors from University of Philadelphia, and her masters from Yale University. Grannan has won a lot of awards and exhibited a lot of her work in many different museums, newspapers, and magazines. In her first pieces of work, her subjects are complete strangers that she has found in newspaper advertisements. The first couple of series are environmental and through her subjects she captures the idea of living the american dream in the northeast. These photos are awkward in the way the subjects are standing, where they are placed, and what they are wearing. Some of them were so skewed, they made me feel uncomfortable, and it some weird way I believe that was some of her hidden intentions.
After moving to California, Grannan continued photographing strangers, or as she called them "new pioneers". The difference in these photos, is she wanted to now capture the struggles of living in the West. I can see the difference from the photos from Massachusetts and her photos from California. These strangers seem to be struggling to find their identity, and under the usage of hard drugs. She uses nudity in both areas, but in her western photos, they seem to be more comfortable in their nudity. Although these were portraits of complete strangers, the way she captured a lot of different identities and characteristics, I think it, in a way, reflected the feelings she may have felt herself living in these two, very different, places.
This week I wanted to find a female artist to learn more about, and I came across Katy Grannan. She received her bachelors from University of Philadelphia, and her masters from Yale University. Grannan has won a lot of awards and exhibited a lot of her work in many different museums, newspapers, and magazines. In her first pieces of work, her subjects are complete strangers that she has found in newspaper advertisements. The first couple of series are environmental and through her subjects she captures the idea of living the american dream in the northeast. These photos are awkward in the way the subjects are standing, where they are placed, and what they are wearing. Some of them were so skewed, they made me feel uncomfortable, and it some weird way I believe that was some of her hidden intentions.
After moving to California, Grannan continued photographing strangers, or as she called them "new pioneers". The difference in these photos, is she wanted to now capture the struggles of living in the West. I can see the difference from the photos from Massachusetts and her photos from California. These strangers seem to be struggling to find their identity, and under the usage of hard drugs. She uses nudity in both areas, but in her western photos, they seem to be more comfortable in their nudity. Although these were portraits of complete strangers, the way she captured a lot of different identities and characteristics, I think it, in a way, reflected the feelings she may have felt herself living in these two, very different, places. 
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