Date of Award
Spring 5-31-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Photography
First Advisor
Eduardo L. Rivera
Second Advisor
Lindsey Beal
Third Advisor
Jessina Leonard
Abstract
Covered in Snow is a photographic exploration into the ripple effect of maternal loss and environmental decay in my hometown of Canton, Ohio. In the wake of a miscarriage, the woods I had grown up within began calling to me, urging me to return. Unbeknownst to me, a series of accidental deaths of women had been happening throughout these trees my entire life, their stories only coming to the surface as I looked to the trees for solace. This series of inexplicable deaths in the woods I so desperately loved began to alter my relationship to the trees, a distrust simmering within me.
Returning to the sites of each of the deaths, I photographed the surroundings, looking for any traces of the women amongst the rich, swampy Ohio landscape. Utilizing multiple photographic techniques, I spent two years searching the trees of Ohio for answers. Through this body of work, I’ve pieced together a web of images that discuss how violence and grief haunt a landscape, and what remnants of memory are only evident once it becomes transformed by time or buried in the snow.
Recommended Citation
Rogers, Katelynn M., "Covered in Snow" (2025). Masters Theses. 1493.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1493
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Fine Arts Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences Commons, Photography Commons, Visual Studies Commons, Women's Studies Commons