Word: photograph
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...first image is titled "My People" and consists of a large grasshopper standing on top of a boulder with wings outstretched, gesturing to "his people" in front of a blazing red sky. Norfleet continues with more abrasive images, such as "The Expectation of Submission." In this photograph, smaller insects have become caught in a wall of straw while larger bugs hover menacingly above. The entire composition is anchored by an erie red moon placed in the center of the photograph...
...photographs then move into a happier, more light-hearted section that reveal Norfleet's humor. "Toys" is a charming (well, as charming as beetles really can be) whimsical photograph of three insects flying kites. (The kites are also other insects, which suggests darker connotations to "having fun.") The tension throughout the book between terrestrial and aerial insects is successfully addressed in this photograph through the device of the kite's string, which acts as a unifying force between the sky and the sand...
...Fairest of Them All" provides witty commentary not only on the aesthetics of insects (which not all of us find as attractive, as, say, horses or bunnies) and our own human vanity through the Narcissus allegory but on the inherent vanity in artistic expression as well. The photograph is also a display of Norfleet's artistic ingenuity, as it integrates both the insect and its mirror image seamlessly. Later in the book, "Of Course We Prayed" presents a similar commentary, as Norfleet uses praying mantises as a clever pun on her perception of the spirituality in America today...
...collection ends with a group of photographs that are more satirical than light-hearted or abrasive, as in "Real Estate," a photograph that depicts three insects hanging onto three separate branches stuck into three separate, walled-off areas of plots of land. In "Heroes," three insects stand atop white platforms of varying heights, their arms outstretched in a victory pose, while in "ship of fools," three insects look out into the distance from the bow of an oyster shell, while another tires to pull a drowning companion aboard...
...favorite photograph by far was "Yet Another Post-Modern Sunset," in which various bugs look over a stone wall at a vivid sunset of oranges and reds. Norfleet is simultaneously poking fun at both the post-modernists and herself. But she is also creating a striking contrast between the fiery imagery of the sunset and her final piece, "Untitled," where Norfleet's insects appear embedded in a glacier, with only a few appendages exposed to the light...