Creative Portraiture

Granville Carroll, Photography and Related Media MFA student, on his self portraiture project:

"As a Black American, race is constantly projected onto me as the defining characteristic of my existence. This body of work is the exploration to redefine the black identity. It is the attempt to transcend race, a complex and paradoxical issue that constantly suppresses and labels those affected by it. In the process of developing these photographs, I projected images of stars and galaxies onto my body. The use of self portraiture allows for the reclamation of identity and authorship of my own image. It becomes an act of presence and absence, existence and nonexistence. The stars symbolize the search for my own truth and a return to my origin story. Who were we before we were bought, sold and killed? Where does our true existence lie? This is an exploration of these questions. Beginning with looking upward to the stars for answers. Hoping to connect beyond the temporal world and transcend into the raw beauty of creation."

*RIT's Photography and Related Media MFA program provides students with the opportunity to use the still and moving image as a means to: develop as a practicing artist, pursue a professional career and earn a livelihood, enrich their personal lives and society as a whole and create a community of creativity, scholarship and purpose.

Self Portraiture by Granville Carroll