An unwieldy Archive of Violence as Catharsis FROM THE STUDY ON POST- PUBESCENT MANHOOD / STACY KRANITZ Photography

For this project I have established a center of study to focus my gaze on a specific group of young men that I have befriended at a dystopian compound in Ohio.  

I came to Skatopia searching for displays of violence that function as catharsis, as a part of a larger body of work that explores subcultures that self-consciously dramatize violence through rituals, habits, and pastimes. In performing these behaviors in front of the camera, the participants implicate the photographer and viewer as consumers of that violence. This is where my work is the most comfortable, not as documentation but rather as an exploration of the ethical boundaries of representation and the subversion of the photographer’s “role”. 

The photographs culminate as an unwieldy archive. I think maybe if I have enough evidence that violence can function as an emotional release I can validate behvior that might at first glance seem unbecoming.

FROM THE STUDY ON POST- PUBESCENT MANHOOD / STACY KRANITZ

This 80 page full color 8x5 saddle stiched book looks at how subculture self-consciously dramatizes violence through daily rituals, habits, and pastimes, thereby implicating the photographer and viewer as consumers of that violence. These images were taken at a dystopian compound called Skatopia in the Southern Ohio Appalachian region of the United States. The book exists as an unwieldy archive of violence as catharsis.