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Maker Catanese, Melissa American, b. 1979
Date2005
MediumChromogenic development print
Dimensionsoverall: 20 in x 16 in
Credit LineGift of the artist
Object number2010:99
About the ArtistThrough the process of collecting, archiving, and sequencing, these brief observations become a subtle but uplifting narrative about the visual potential of what is around us. – Melissa Catanese

Working with a common 35mm point-and-shoot camera, Melissa Catanese makes photographs that are not so much about the everyday objects and events in front of her lens as how using a camera structures the photographer’s interaction with those things. The uneven illumination of a harsh flash at night, for instance, aptly demonstrates the photograph as a particular type of response, the record of a reaction. Catanese makes the pictures as personal documents, and they retain a sense of casual discovery. Drawing on the vernacular of snapshots, there is something understandably familiar in her pictures of a dog with redeye or sunlight filtered through tree branches, a familiarity that underscores the curious fact that certain things continually compel us to make pictures of them.

Melissa Catanese was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She holds a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design (2001) and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2006). Exhibitions featuring her pictures include RaiseUp2 (at C. Emmerson Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL; ADM Gallery, Los Angeles; and Omy Gallery, Toronto); Keep it in the Family, En Rounte, Relics, and Cul de Sac (all at Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI); and Interface (at the Cleveland Institute of Art). Her work has been published in tiny vices, From Here on Out, RaiseUp Volumes I and 2, and as the monograph Stardust.
Calla Lilies
Catanese, Melissa
2005
Curtains
Catanese, Melissa
2005
New Year's Day
Catanese, Melissa
2006
Clouds
Catanese, Melissa
2005
Butler Street
Catanese, Melissa
2005
Chord #6
Krisar, Anders
2001/2002
Untitled, from the "House Pictures" series
Wessel Jr., Henry
1990, printed 1991
Community Festival Street Party
Steele-Perkins, Chris
1975; printed 1986
The Real Live Barbie at Target
Pinney, Melissa Ann
1998, printed 2003