Laura Larson (born 1965) is an American photographer.

Life

Larson earned her BA in English from Oberlin College, her MFA in visual arts at Rutgers, State University of New Jersey and participated in the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

Independent Study Program. She is on the faculty of Bard MFA, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Art

Art career

Larson identifies herself as a photographer, although her work includes film, video, digital media, and writing. Larson's work challenges the notion of the medium that "never lies." In her "Domestic Interiors" and "My Dark Places" series, she photographs dollhouse interiors, playing with the viewer's perception of scale. Larson's “Well-Appointed” series depicts the interior of historical homes, focusing on the lavish furniture and raising questions about wealth and power. Her series “Complementary” captured traces of occupancy in hotel rooms after checkout and before maid service. Larson used the interrelationship of First and Second Wave Feminism as a jumping off point for these four bodies of work, which center around mise en scene, and how the rooms themselves tell a story.Margaret Sundell, Interview with Margaret Sundell, Photographs 1996–2012 Lennon, Weinberg Gallery, July 10 to September 13, 2014. Two related series “Apparition” and “Asylum” focus on the paranormal. Larson created her own Spirit photography, spirit photographs, using cigarette smoke to reference the staged spirit photographs of the 19th century. Larson's focus shifted to the representation of the body with her series "Ectoplasm," referencing the both humorous and moving 19th century photographs of female

mediums Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

. In her video ''Electric Girls and the Invisible World'', she follows a group of five teenage girlfriends and their mysterious connection to the 19th century medium

Eusapia Palladino Eusapia Palladino (alternative spelling: ''Paladino''; 21 January 1854 – 16 May 1918) was an Italian Spiritualist physical medium. She claimed extraordinary powers such as the ability to levitate tables, communicate with the dead through ...

, presenting reflections on female adolescence, melancholy, and longing. ''Electric Girls'' was supported by a post-production residency for film at the

Wexner Center for the Arts The Wexner Center for the Arts is the Ohio State University's "multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art". The Wexner Center opened in November 1989, named in honor of the father of Limite ...

. Her book ''Hidden Mother'' (2017) uses portraits of children with "hidden mothers," the term for the practice of concealing a mother's body as she supported her child during the long exposures demanded by early photographic technology, to present her personal experience of motherhood. As part of this project, Larson curated a traveling exhibition of 19th century

tintype A tintype, also known as a melainotype or ferrotype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. Tintypes enjoyed their ...

s featuring portraits of children with "hidden mothers." Larson published her second book ''City of Incurable Women'' (2022

https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2022/september/radical-empathy-city-incurable-women-conversation-laura-larson-renee-h-shea] Larson was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Photography in 2023

Book

* * Larson, Laura (2022). ''City of Incurable Women''. Saint Lucy Books. ISBN 978-0-578-96398-3.

Public collections

Larson's work is held in the following public collections: *

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York City * Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larson, Laura 1965 births Living people Fine art photographers Ohio University faculty Rutgers University alumni Artists from Ohio 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American photographers 20th-century American women photographers 21st-century American women photographers American women academics