Kelsi Martin: Literature, Twisted

Kelsi Martin is drawn to written stories that create intense imagery in the reader’s mind. She combined her interests in reading and photography to develop a series of images based on sub-genres of the horror literary genre. The images in Literature: Twisted reference specific books that serve as both the form and material for her tableaus. Martin’s intention is for these images to express moments from each book and depict its primary theme.

Martin’s process started with making a model of the visual image that she wanted to portray. She then carved out the pieces that would tell each story from the pages of a physical copy of each book and put the pieces back together, applying her aesthetic to the process. The photos in this series were created from 20 books. They include her depiction of Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), an early example of the horror genre. The inspiration for another image came from The Shadow over Innsmouth (1936) by H.P. Lovecraft whose work launched a horror sub-genre that came to be known by the author’s surname.