ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the case study of Kelli Connell. Connell is an artist and Associate Professor of Photography at Columbia College Chicago. In her photographic project Double Life, Connell explores multiple sides of the self by using the same model to portray both masculine and feminine characters in a relationship in each composite photograph. In Double Life, Connell exemplifies Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theories, as well as postmodernist and poststructuralist ideals. In Connell’s composite photographs, there are four layers of reality: the tangible facts, personal interpretation, emotion, and desire. Connell’s multiple layers of reality can be observed from her own definition of it and from her artwork. Even though it was Blue that inspired her, The Space Between is not about the movie, but the feeling and emotion for which Connell has compassion. The strategy Connell employs is surrealistic doubling, presenting the artist beyond gender borders.
