Abstract

This thesis considers selected photographic projects created between 1985 and 1998 by Montreal artist Angela Grauerholz. The four main projects examined are Secrets, a Gothic Tale , Églogue, or Filling the Landscape , Aporia , and Sententia I-LVII . Grauerholz's work includes images of the seemingly inconsequential and momentary: hazy images of people waiting in line, train tracks, a couple packing their car trunk, two men drinking in a bar, empty roads, an unused pool, a vinyl couch in a hall, gardens, windows, and so on. Through her work, Grauerholz confronts themes of memory, absence, framing, access. The photographs are presented in a variety of sizes from 8 x 12.5 cm to 244 x 161.5 cm, and in a variety of cabinets and boxes, in book format and in traditional frames, making generalizations difficult. In this thesis Grauerholz's oeuvre is examined within a thematic construct dividing the paper into three main sections: Landscape, Feminism, and The Archive. The method used to approach the work is a consideration of the visual influences upon her work, examination of theories of photography, selected philosophical writings and feminist analysis.