Author initial: V

Vann Powell

Artist, archivist, documentarian, and collector based in Durham, N.C. USA.

“The Disappearing Family,” traces the family unit through the modern period and into the post modern period. The images start in black and white and shift into color photography while shadowing the changing and de-centering aspects of social and cultural life as the family unit moves from the modern epoch into that of the postmodern.  The project was presented as an artist talk @cdsduke and is a forthcoming book publication.

Shadow over Shadow

“Shadow over Shadow” is a research about the tropes and genre conventions of film noir.

“A dark street in the early morning hours, splashed with a sudden downpour. Lamps form haloes in the murk. In a walk-up room, filled with the intermittent flashing of a neon sign from across the street, a man is waiting to murder or be murdered. (…) Standard lamps fallen on pile carpets, spilling a fan of light about the face of a corpse; interrogation rooms filled with nervous police, the witness framed at their center under a spotlight, heels clicking along subway or elevated platforms at night. (…) Here is a world where it is always night, always foggy or wet, filled with gunshots and sobs, where men wear turned-down brims on their hats and women loom in fur coats, guns thrust deep in their pockets…
And above all, shadow over shadow over shadow.”