Drawn to photography because of its ubiquitous presence in our culture and its duplicitous existence as both an indexical representation of reality and a subjective construction of it, Mille Tibbs explores the various roles played by both the photographic object and photographic image in her work. Join us as she discusses her recent work, which investigates the idealized landscape and the role that photography can play in framing historical narratives.

A  Q&A will follow her talk.

Artist Statement

I am interested in the discrepancy between what we see and what we know. I am drawn to photography because of its ubiquitous presence in our culture and its duplicitous existence as both an indexical representation of reality and a subjective construction of it. It is a slippery medium that easily shifts from a scientific documentation of a moment in time to a subjective expression. I am interested in the space where these qualities contradict each other and coexist simultaneously.

My recent work expands several lines of inquiry that I have been developing throughout my artistic practice: an interest in the material properties of the photographic object; the malleability of the illusionistic qualities of the photographic image; and photography’s role in the production of iconic imagery, which, through its simplification of the subject matter and overuse, becomes cliché. I am particularly interested in the space where the authentic meets the constructed, and the real and the manipulated overlap.

My work has evolved into an investigation of idealized landscape imagery - the kind that is easily consumable and often commodified. I am fascinated with the landscape genre and its visual language: the aesthetics imposed on the land through photographic framing and the historical narratives these aesthetics reinforce. My practice seeks to reconcile my conflicted relationship with these landscapes - my personal desire to inhabit and experience their transcendence, the complex and often painful human histories they hold, and the symbolic meanings we project onto them. Through cutting, folding, sewing onto photographs, and employing darkroom manipulation, I disrupt the surface illusion of these images, revealing their constructed artifice. By reintroducing the hand into these processes, I emphasize the mediated nature of these representations, reminding viewers that there is little left untouched or unaltered in these spaces.