Katherine Wolkoff's body of work is surprisingly diverse, deftly moving from one subject matter to the next. She was born in 1976 in Indiana, studied American History at Barnard College, and graduated with an MFA in Photography from Yale in 2003. In 2007, the artist revealed her series of deer beds, which are simple impressions made by the animals in grass fields. Much like her silhouettes of birds and people, this series of photos engages the viewer, inviting him to imagine the details of the animal, given just the outline. There is a great sense of motion and unease in these pictures, for the animals would have had to be startled away from these habitats relatively quickly before the photos were taken, in order for the beds to be intact. Her silhouettes are equally intriguing; in a way, they are working against the audience's immediate needs while exercising their creativity. Wolkoff allows the colorful plumage of the birds and the facial features of her human models to be superimposed on these silhouettes. We end up seeing just what we want to see in the end. She has moved on to a series of images of New Orleans, after being razed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
I am a great proponent of work that suggests more than it actually shows to the viewer. Absence can be extremely powerful when handled as wisely as Wolkoff has shown. Her deer beds are deceptively simple and carry with them a great deal of possibility.
http://www.wipnyc.org/blog/katherine-wolkoff.html
http://katherinewolkoff.com/
www.point-mag.com/pdf/Point-KatherineWolkoff.pdf
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