A Spectacle and Nothing Strange - Hardcover

by Ahndraya Parlato (Photographer), Christian Hawkey (Contribution by)

Irrational images flash through our minds all the time, in dreams and daydreams. Ahndraya Parlato's work imagines an oscillation between these internal and external images, revealing the possibilities of different realities. Combining ten years' worth of images, this book draws on Parlato's experience of being raised by a single mother who was mentally ill. Parlato was put in the position of having to decide whether her mother's observations and fears were real or imagined. These photographs allow her to move between various realities, acknowledging the validity of her mother's world, while also questioning the boundaries of normal, abnormal, sane, and insane.

Author Biography

Ahndraya Parlato was born in Kailua, Hawaii. She has a B.A. in photography from Bard College and an MFA from California College of the Arts. Her book East of the Sun, West of the Moon, a collaboration with Gregory Halpern, was published by Études Books in 2014. She has been a nominee for the Paul Huf Award from the FOAM Museum in Amsterdam, and for the SECCA Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She has received grants from Light Work and from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is a professor of photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology.