ri anderson
RI Anderson believes in making rather than taking pictures, in creating fiction fused with fact. Her photography-based work straddles the line between recognition and implausibility in compositions that suspend a sense of reality and invite something new. Whether they are comprised of single photographs or many collaged together, they are all believable in the way dreams are: irrational but emotionally potent.
Born and raised throughout the northeastern US, transplanted in central Mexico, a member of an aerial circus troupe and mother of teenage girls, Anderson’s eclectic background and interests have influenced the development of her unconventional use of the photographic medium. Early in her career Anderson made use of medium and large format analogue cameras. Later her style evolved to the use of digital point and shoot cameras as instruments for obtaining photographic data. She takes that data as raw material and masterfully transforms it into complex, surreal compositions.
Anderson was born the third of four children to an itinerant ecumenical minister and a literary mother who traversed the US. Anderson's childhood was filled with long unstructured days of roaming throughout and around local woods and lakes of her family's various homes and neighborhoods.
Anderson received a BA in philosophy and linguistics from Connecticut College, and went on to receive an MFA with a concentration in photography from Massachusetts College of Art. There she studied with luminaries including Abelardo Morrell, Laura McPhee, Frank Golke, and Nick Nixon. She taught at a variety of universities and schools including Massachusetts College of Art, Boston Photo Collaborative, and the DeCordova Museum School. Her work has been widely exhibited throughout North America and around the world.
In 2005 Anderson moved from Boston to San Miguel de Allende, where she birthed and raised two daughters. Although she works primarily as a visual artist, Anderson also designs collections of wallpapers, lampshades, and objets d’art. Trained as a photographer, she is also a master printer, an accomplished dancer, and aerialist. She lives with her two daughters on a ranchito just outside San Miguel de Allende, where they all feel lucky to have integrated into the magic of Mexico.
