James Casebere Essay

As one of the forefront photographers working with constructed photography, James Casebere has influenced much of the contemporary/modern photography for almost 40 years. Casebere grew up in Detroit and attended Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the Whitney Independent Study Program, and received his MFA from Cal Arts. His technique requires him to device simple and complex models and sculptures to photograph and they include aspects of everyday life and take inspiration from history. His work is usually associated with a photographic movement known as the “The Pictures Generation”. The photograph that I chose to discuss is a part of Casebere’s collection of flooded images he began in the late 1990s: Yellow Hallway #2. Yellow Hallway #2 is a photograph of a flooded yellow hallway between two staircases. The entire space in the image is yellow with white crown molding. At the end of the hallway, between the two staircases, are two doorways separated by a small width of wall with a shelf built into it. Inside the doorway on the left is a door. This door is not connected to the hinges and looks too big to fit in the doorway; it is a free door inside of a dark room. The space behind the …show more content…
For example, there are orb-like structures embedded in the checkered floor, which I cannot connect with any object I have seen before. An association can be made between the Alice in Wonderland and antebellum interpretations of the image. The titular character of Alice in Wonderland is faced with a myriad of choices and in her making decisions, the story is moved along. The choices made by a majority of Americans during the pre Civil War era triggered an internal war that destroyed much of the south. The two doorways and dual staircases are symbols of choices an individual would need to make in this