The Live Creature images are the result of my desire to explore this notion of display, in both a physical and emotional sense. Stylistically, the images are inspired by Renaissance portrait paintings, which convey a sense of the sitter as part of an intricate tableau meant to be examined. I sought out to create a “formal experience” with my subjects, in which we come together for the express purpose of creating an image. In this process, we both experience the sensation of viewing and being viewed. There exists a conscious uncertainty as the subject studies my movements and I in turn study theirs.

The title The Live Creature and Ethereal Things originates in a John Dewey text, Art as Experience, in which Dewey defines “the experience” as a process that “continues until a mutual adaptation of the self and the object emerges . . . the interaction of the two constitutes the total experience that is had, and the close which completes it is the institution of a felt harmony.”

BIOGRAPHY
Tealia Ellis Ritter was born in Illinois. She was given her first camera, a Canon F-1, at the age of six by her father. After attending Columbia College Chicago, where she completed her BA in fine art photography, she earned her MFA with highest honors at the University of Iowa. Her work has been exhibited across the US, most recently at the 31 Under 31 Show by Humble Arts, Silver Eye Center for Photography, and the Photographic Center Northwest. She now lives and works in the Chicago area with her husband Dave and their dog Zoe.

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