| Alan Arsenault (Gardner, MA) is a junior photography major in the New England Institute of Art's new BS program in Digital Photography. Before coming to NEIA in Brookline, MA, Arsenault pursued photojournalism. Inspired by AI professors Rachelle Dermer and Thomas Gustainis, Arsenault added a new conceptual bent to his studies and image making. In all of his series presented here, he constructs sets to photograph using simple materials, often with humorous undertones.
Arsenault's “Edgerton Follies” series was most recently featured on our 2008 PRC Student Exhibition postcard and poster. In “Edgerton Follies,” Arsenault takes for inspiration Edgerton's famous high speed photographs, but with a Rube Goldberg twist. Upon further inspection, his bullet is hanging from a string, the smoke is actually cotton, and the milk drop a shoddily cut out piece of paper. In another constructed series, “Community Journalism,” Arsenault takes aim at news photographs. Playing off the low res aesthetic, these sets are photographed using a camera phone and the resulting images are printed on newsprint paper. From the burning remnants of a plane crash to blurry footage of Bigfoot, Arsenault cleaverly comments upon common narrative and visual conventions in news stories and images. - Leslie K. Brown, PRC Curator
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