Date of Award

5-2022

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.F.A.

Degree Program

Fine Arts

Department

Fine Arts

Major Professor

Ariya Martin

Second Advisor

Anthony Campbell

Third Advisor

Anna Mecugni

Abstract

Responding to the current state of the world and the cataclysmic events that are shaping it, through photography and installation Rene Merino takes the viewer to Mardi Gras in the midst of a pandemic, on a world tour when travel was forbidden, and into the study of a searcher for the possibly extinct ivory-billed woodpecker. The body of work, which utilizes digital and analog photographic methods and installation practices, highlights the precarious state of life on earth, yet offers hope that humanity can maneuver away from the edge of calamity. Mardi Gras 2021 is comprised of black and white silver gelatin photographs, World Tour 2020 is a series of large, digital color photographs originally published as a book of postcards, and The Searcher’s Study (2022) is a room-sized installation that includes six black and white silver gelatin photographs, archival video, furniture, books, maps, and other items.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

Available for download on Thursday, May 27, 2027

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