Catherine Yass: cell

Cell

by: Yass, Catherine


Catherine Yass is well known for her colourful, distorted photographs of people and institutions. She is interested in the unreliability of photography, or a mistrust of it to tell the truth, as well as the 'psychology of spaces'. She often works in places such as psychiatric hospitals. Cell comprises of 8 images taken of police cell corridors, some long shots of the hallways, and others close ups of windows, toilets and doors. The distortion of the images draws attention to the marks, and surfaces of these spaces, detail which naturally becomes more noticeable when confined in one place for a period of time. The colour and texture created by Yass' distortion distances the viewer from the reality of the scene, enabling thought about its more painterly qualities. Yass creates the lurid, saturated imagery by cross-processing; she over lays a positive transparency with a negative one which has been taken seconds after. This means that light captured in the photographs are blocked out with dense area of blue from the negative image. Placing the images on light boxes gives them a further three dimensional feel.