2nd place
silver star award
Patty Carroll
united states 
title
Anonymous Women: Domestic Demise
My focus is to shed light on the tireless efforts of unsung heroines who manage households, families, careers and have shaped us. Inspired by consumer culture and the meaning attached to material possessions, my female figures represent women from all backgrounds, ages and cultures.
The photographs are constructed,elaborate domestic scenes meticulously created within an 8 x 8-foot “stage.” I use a mannequin; the ideal icon of women. For each shoot, weeks are spent hunting for items to fill the space. I often sew custom outfits for the female figure, and we build or paint custom props. Each set is arranged and rearranged until every color and detail is in place, relying on meticulous labor, ingenuity, and illusion. (Photoshop is used only for color, adjustments, and printing. The photographs are not created on the screen or with AI.)
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entry description
Anonymous Women: Domestic Demise explores the connection between a woman's identity and her home, specifically the term "housewife." All of the narrative still-life photographs are created in the studio. They are imagined interior spaces of rooms filled with décor and objects, engulfing a lone figure of a woman, camouflaged, within her surroundings. My photographs are metaphors for the interior lives of women; how we substitute everyday objects, activities and artifice and turn them into identity. The imaginary worlds are both critique and satire of domestic perfection, an impossible endeavor. Humor, color and design are my toolbox.My focus is to shed light on the tireless efforts of unsung heroines who manage households, families, careers and have shaped us. Inspired by consumer culture and the meaning attached to material possessions, my female figures represent women from all backgrounds, ages and cultures.
The photographs are constructed,elaborate domestic scenes meticulously created within an 8 x 8-foot “stage.” I use a mannequin; the ideal icon of women. For each shoot, weeks are spent hunting for items to fill the space. I often sew custom outfits for the female figure, and we build or paint custom props. Each set is arranged and rearranged until every color and detail is in place, relying on meticulous labor, ingenuity, and illusion. (Photoshop is used only for color, adjustments, and printing. The photographs are not created on the screen or with AI.)
about the photographer
Patty Carroll has been known for her use of highly intense, saturated color photographs since the 1970’s. Her most recent project, “Anonymous Women,” consists of a 3-part series of studio installations made for the camera, addressing women and their complicated relationships with domesticity. By camouflaging the figure in drapery and/or domestic objects, Carroll creates a dark and humorous game of hide-and-seek between her viewers and the Anonymous Woman. The photographs are exhibited in large scale and were published as a monograph in 2016 by Daylight Books, and as "Domestic Demise" in 2020 by Ain't Bad Books. The Anonymous Woman series has been exhibited internationally and has won multiple awards including Carroll being acknowledged as one of Photolucida’s “Top 50” in 2104 and 2017. Her work has been featured in prestigious blogs and international magazines such as the Huffington Post, The Cut, Ain’t Bad Magazine, and BJP in Britain. Her work has been shown internationally in many one-person exhibits in China and Europe, as well as the USA. (White Box Museum, Beijing, Art Institute of Chicago, Blue Star, San Antonio, Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England, among others.) After teaching photography for many years, Carroll has enthusiastically returned to the studio in order to delight viewers with her playful critique of home and excess. Please see website for full biography.back to gallery
