Sandy Skoglund

Sandy Skoglund controls every detail in her photographs, going one step beyond the tradition of studio photography, she not only directs the actor’s placement and gestures, she also designs and fabricates many of the objects included in the tableaux.
Sandy Skoglund (born September 11, 1946) is an American photographer and installation artist.
Skoglund creates surrealist images by building elaborate sets or tableaux, furnishing them with carefully purchased and trained small children and other objects, a process of which takes her months to complete. Finally, she photographs the set, complete with actors.
The works are characterized by an overwhelming amount of one object and either bright, contrasting colors or a monochromatic color scheme.
Skoglund studied both art history and studio art at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, graduating in 1968.
In 1967, she studied art history at the Sorbonne and Ecole du Louvre in Paris, France.
After graduating from Smith College, she went to graduate school at the University of Iowa in 1969, where she studied film-making, multimedia art, and printmaking.
In 1971, she earned her Master of Arts and in 1972 a Master of Fine Arts in painting.
In 1972, Skoglund began working as a conceptual artist in New York. She became interested in teaching herself photography to document her artistic endeavors, experimenting with themes of repetition. In 1978, she had produced a series of repetitious food item still life images.

Radioactive Cats 1980 by Sandy Skoglund

Revenge of the Goldfish 1981 by Sandy Skoglund

A Breeze at Work 1987 by Sandy Skoglund

Fox Games 1989 by Sandy Skoglund

The Green House 1990 by Sandy Skoglund

Gathering Paradise 1991 by Sandy Skoglund

One of her most-known works, entitled Radioactive Cats, features green-painted clay cats running amok in a gray kitchen.
An older man sits in a chair with his back facing the camera while his elderly wife looks into a refrigerator that is the same color as the walls.
Another image, Fox Games has a similar feel to Radioactive Cats and is also widely recognized.
A third and final oft-recognized piece by her features numerous fish hovering above people in bed late at night and is called Revenge of the Goldfish.
The piece was used as cover art for the In-spiral Carpets album of the same name.

“I think I am most fond of the unseen part. I mean that the various cultural experiences that I go through, and the behavioral aspects of getting the work done, are just as important as the installation and the photograph.”

Squirrels at The Drive-In 1991 by Sandy Skoglund

Atomic Love 1992 by Sandy Skoglund

Cats in Paris 1993 by Sandy Skoglund

The Cold War 1999 by Sandy Skoglund

Breathing Glass 2000 by Sandy Skoglund

Raining Popcorn 2001 by Sandy Skoglund

Skoglund was an art professor at the University of Hartford between 1973 and 1976. She is currently teaching photography and art installation/multimedia at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Skoglund has recently completed a series titled “True Fiction Two”. This recent project is similar to the “True Fiction” series that she began in 1986. This series was not completed due to the discontinuation of materials that Skoglund was using. Kodak canceled the production of the dye that Skoglund was using for her prints. Each image in “True Fiction Two” has been meticulously crafted to assimilate the visual and photographic possibilities now available in digital processes.
Her works are held in numerous museum collections including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Dayton Art Institute.

Fresh Hybrid 2011 by Sandy Skoglund

Pipe cleaners on panels used for the wall background on Fresh Hybrid by Sandy Skoglund

Pipe cleaners on panels used for the wall background on Fresh Hybrid by Sandy Skoglund