Austin Elliott
Austin Elliott’s project Distorted explores how different human emotions are expressed through the photographic lens. Elliott uses different methods of distortion to study how image contortion and color invite different responses in the viewer when engaging with this work. Elliott invites the viewer to study each claustrophobic photograph and find out for themselves what emotions each image causes when viewing different photographs. Having the desire to express emotions felt before, Elliott seeks to display more difficult emotions to talk about as the viewer sits with each feeling the photograph creates. Similar to how fractured glass reflects our image differently as a metaphor for the different distortions in this work, we see distortions of ourselves as we study each shard of glass. In this work, the viewer experiences different elements of their own internal emotions as they engage with the contortions in this work.