Sophie Sebastiani

Media Arts & Sciences and Economics major

photographs in the Jewett Sculpture Court and Jewett Hallway Galleries

salon-style hang of unframed, white-bordered color photographs on a gray fabric wall

salon-style hang of color and black and white photographs on a white wall, viewed from an angle

Full Moon Over the Charles River, Boston, MA

archival inkjet print

digitally manipulated photo of traffic cone lying on its side on a bridge road; the evening sky shows a moon and many flying monarch butterflies

"Somehow, you knew that everything was a bit odd, and a bit unreal, and often fake, but because there was no other picture of the world, and you were so within this system you accepted it as normal and just went on." - Adam Curtis

I have recently become interested in the concept of hyperreality; how technology is narrowing the gap between reality and simulation in a way that results in a very surreal and generally unstable perception of the world around us. At the same time, the structural inequalities in our society that maintain the social hierarchy of global capitalism have fractured the realities of many Americans by further widening the gap between the very wealthy and the poor, shrinking the middle class and decimating the American dream.

A Normal Place with Happy People, Boston, MA

archival inkjet print

black and white photo of people crossing a street in front of a large building under construction; the sky is full of flying bird silhouettes; it is not obvious if the image has been manipulated or not

In large cities like Boston, the income disparities driving this hierarchy are glaringly obvious, no more so than in Back Bay in the area surrounding Newbury Street, a road lined with commercial buildings ranging from fast-fashion stores like Urban Outfitters and TJ Maxx on one end to luxury brands such as Cartier and Chanel at the other.

Heading Across a Great Divide, Boston, MA

archival inkjet print

black and white photo showing people crossing a city street; some have had their heads digitally removed

Through this collection, I wanted to illustrate a perspective of the chaotic, absurd reality of this ever-developing landscape while combining further aspects of surrealism in photoshop to disorient the viewer. These images depict the containers of social inequity that we are all trapped in and our ignorance in the face of it, adding in visual themes of corporate development and an apocalypse of biblical proportions that is invisible to everyone in the scene while the viewer remains helpless to intervene.

Grocery Run, Wellesley, MA

archival inkjet print

large corner building under construction with murmuration of birds in the sky; it is not immediately obvious if the image is digitally manipulated or not

The Labor of Voyeurism, Wellesley, MA

archival inkjet print

photograph, mostly black, shot from outside looking in a window to a brightly illuminated room where a man has arms over his head doing something to a light

several photographs arranged salon-style on a white wall in a multi-level atrium-type space

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