Angela Strassheim Lecture

Last night, a handful of CVA students and I attended a lecture by photographer Angela Strassheim. David Little (photo curator at the MIA) was there to ask questions of her work and lead the discussion. After the lecture, we all headed over to the MIA to see the work.

David and Angela during the lecture

"One person can see it as sweet and loving, and one person can be terrified by it, and they're looking at the same image." - Angela discussing something she likes about photography, and something that she discovered while showing her older work.

Her new work "Evidence" consists of photos of DNA evidence left in the walls / floors well after familial homicides. Here's a quote from the MIA New Pictures website:

...During a six-year period between her undergraduate and graduate studies, she earned a living as a forensic photographer, taking pictures of crime scenes and autopsies. Since 2009, she has applied this on-the-job experience to produce Evidence, a more nuanced and less scientific examination of domestic crime. These photographs reveal the eerie vestiges of past lives in homes that are now inhabited by new families...

She sprays the area where the crime occurred with a substance that reacts with the iron left behind from the blood. She does this in completely blackened rooms so that the blood and DNA evidence BECOMES the light source in the photo.

"It's about loving relationships with family members. It's about people that LOVED each other." - Angela during the lecture.

"I've found these to be 'Memorials of Light'." - Angela during the lecture.

After the lecture, we headed over to the MIA to see some of the work in person. Here's some of the "CVA Photo Club" as we were getting ready to leave:

If you want to see more, check out Angela's website. Or take a look at the video below produced by the MIA: