Welcome to Mystic Forest

The creation of a personal, fictional world inspired by films, memories and kitsch themes is the heart of the work I am allowing my viewers to live in. Pertaining to no particular decade and looking at high camp, I am creating this fictional town with exaggerated characters inspired by everyday people. Having grown up hiking the Adirondack mountains, I use a distinct color palette found through nature while reflecting nostalgia in my photographs.

Welcome to Mystic Forest, is a character study of people that live in a fake town which is surrounded by high peaked mountains and a large lake. The towns environment is inspired by Lake George, a small vacation town where I spent my summers and the mountains in the Adirondacks I grew up hiking. The photographs contain elements of extreme fabrication and lighting that creates the appearance of the characters being almost clay-like.

In my work, high camp is the vehicle of dethroning the seriousness in art as well as reflecting on the way mass culture lives and the comedy it accidentally creates. As explained in Susan Sontag’s essay, Notes on Camp, the character depicted in the media or object being presented is completely themselves and is a “glorification of the character.” In the essay, the character is described as being intense and looked at as uniquely one of a kind.  

Inspired by the work of Martin Parr’s beach series, Charles Traub’s Lunchtime series and Roger Minick’s Sightseers, I take bits of information found through documentary photographs which contain scenes of real people living their everyday lives. The works are a mass examination of how people live in their environment, studying the general public and culture that surrounds them.

I am looking at the past and what the camp style has offered mass culture, as well as what mass culture has offered camp. At the same time, I am surrounding the style with key elements brought upon by my upbringing.  

To see the full set of images for publishing purposes please contact beth.sacca@bethsacca.com.