Amy Elkins
The series stems from her explorations of the issues that surround capital punishment, and the participation in exchanging letters with inmates on death-row. The series is mainly made up of a number of mug-shots of men and women who have been executed, though the image is constructed through words, the final words of that prisoner. A graphical presentation, its effect both abstractive and formal - rendering their fate concrete. Very chilling.
"Her second series, Black is the Day, Black is the Night, expands her exploration of these topics. Elkins has exchanged letters with prisoners on death row, and she intersperses those letters with images created in an effort to capture the interior landscapes evoked in these correspondences: imagined seascapes; recreations of items described by prisoners; a prison lunch tray purchased on eBay. She creates color portraits of inmates by pixelating and obscuring their faces according to the amount of time each individual has been locked away. As viewers, we are invited to puzzle over an assortment of clues, including reenactments, exhibits submitted for our considerations, partial evidence, and statements both leading and misleading. The work is elegiac and provocative, asking the viewer to engage above and beyond a simple, cursory viewing of these images."
http://www.aperture.org/portfolio-prize/2014-winners/winner-amy-elkins/
Upon continual research into the winners/finalists of the Aperture Portfolio Prize, many of the selected work do follow this documentary series theme still. Perhaps including edited/created images still, but they follow real-world stories. My own style follows a more conceptual/artistic route, so I shall likely avoid following submission to this competition.
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