Catherine Wilcox-Titus
Returned to Life
I don’t accept a hard and fast line between the animate and inanimate world. Instead, I look for ways by which the inanimate can be reanimated with light and an unusual perspective. At a certain moment, light settles upon a salamander suspended in liquid, or a taxidermied bird catches the light through a bell jar. What was formerly so static and seemingly dead seconds ago may momentarily come alive. The object regains a sense of presence.
I make photographs because they are a way to make sense of the world. In some ways, I am exploring these once living things as a scientist might, making careful visual observations of surface and texture. But unlike a scientist, I want to arrange these objects in such a way that simple visual relationships reveal an aesthetic order to the world.
I start with an intuitive feeling about what might become visually compelling. I touch the objects, turn them over in my hands and watch how the light reveals what is there. Setting the objects down, I move them around, I place them in and around the containers and instruments of scientific discovery – glass jars, measuring paper, mirrors. Then I begin to imagine how a camera lens might further transform and amplify what is already there. At that point I set up the camera and begin working on taking the picture.
Artist Bio
Catherine Wilcox-Titus has pursued creative expression in words and images for over 40 years. The poetry of photography has most recently engaged her full attention, and she explored a wide variety of formats and methods. She has a Ph.D. from Boston University in Art History and writes and lectures on topics in art from the 19th century to the present day. Wilcox-Titus teaches at Worcester State University in Massachusetts, and curates the campus gallery.
She has exhibited her work in collaborative two-person shows, group shows, and she will exhibit four still life prints at the upcoming Atelier 21 at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester Massachusetts in March 2015. Wilcox-Titus will also be exhibiting a group of photographs from her Audubon’s Workbench Series at ARTSWorcester in Worcester, Massachusetts in the fall of 2015. She is the recipient of grants from ARTSWorcester and Worcester State University, and won awards in numerous regional exhibitions.
http://www.catherinewilcoxtitusphotography.com
Contact Catherine Wilcox-Titus