ANNA ROTTY How We Hold the Sun, 2024

How We Hold the Sun explores the transformational and relational qualities of light and water. Rotty is fascinated by rivers as fluid beings, rather than fixed representations, with complicated histories - bodies representing power and agency, but also subject to attempts to control them. She observes, and then reconstructs photographs in the studio, or within the environment, that investigate the systems, both natural and built, that transfer energy and water from place to place. This series consists of intimate portraits of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, often shown as layered moments within a single frame. Light and shadow come together in the depths or hovering on surfaces to illuminate sediment, rephotographed prints within the environment, show the connection between landscape and body. 

This work and my practice owe deep gratitude to the Tiwa Pueblo people who have been caring for and communing with the land and water represented in this work since time immemorial.

BIO

Anna Rotty lives on Tiwa land in Albuquerque. She recently received her MFA from the University of New Mexico where she also had the privilege to teach photography. Anna investigates water, light and infrastructure, informing her understanding of orientation and place. Her work has been published by Southwest Contemporary, Humble Arts Foundation, and Lenscratch. She is a current Fellow at the Silver Eye Center for Photography and has recently exhibited at Strata Gallery Santa Fe, Chung 24 Gallery in San Francisco and the Houston Center for Photography. Anna is part of Collective Constructs, a collaborative group of artists and art historians engaging with public visual scholarship to work from the permanent collection at the UNM Art Museum.