Ellie
Image Not Available
Photograph
Ellie
2014
Inkjet print
Image: 22 × 19 1/2 in. (55.9 × 49.5 cm)
Frame:
Purchase with funds from Bruce Barnes and Joseph Cunningham in honor of Lisa Hostetler, 2018
2018.0040.0001
Inscriptions [Gallery label applied on frame verso]
TextIn 2010, the computer that held all of Melanie Willhide’s photographs—personal snapshots as well as professional images—was stolen. The artist eventually recovered the computer and discovered that, although her files had been deleted, the underlying data was recoverable. When the contents were reconstructed, however, portions of the data had been corrupted, creating irregular patterns and random digital artifacts. Intrigued, she began to impose the syntax of digital corruption on images fashioned in the style of a previous era. The resulting combinations of analog and digital photographic vocabularies are distinct and beautiful distillations of today’s visual environment.
