Best of 2016: Stacy Kranitz - It’s All Personal

December 22, 2016 | in Magazine

"This is a staged photograph of my friend Colby and me. My friend Marisha Camp took the photograph. She is an incredibly talented photographer. I was trying to make images that would speak to the complexity of my relationships with the people I photograph. The way I interact with the subjects of my photographs and my openness about my sexual relationships and drug use bothers some viewers of the work. When this image was first published a woman called me "a near feral barefoot mountain girl slut.” I think she meant it negatively but to me it's a beautiful description of the photograph."

"This is my friend Tyler. He just had a beautiful baby boy named Evander."

"At dawn, I met up with kids that have been up all night partying, when the dawn light combines with a zombie-like state of being induced by all night drug use."

"Each year in July the Rural Area Medical unit sets up an expansive outdoor dental office. They provide free healthcare to people without insurance. There is a lot of teeth pulling."

"I spend a lot of time on a sinking island down at the bottom of Louisiana. The people who live there have been abandoned by the state. Louisiana no longer wants to spend money to maintain the roads and they are trying to relocate the people who still live there. I am interested in the people who choose to stay despite the flooding and sinking of their land."

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The blurred boundaries between personal and professional life fascinate Stacy Kranitz, who, without apprehension or remorse, admits to indulging in drugs and engaging in romantic or sexual relationships with her subjects. Kranitz takes fun on the job to another level, eliciting anger in some critics by her approach and creating occupational envy in others.

Portrait of Stacy Kranitz by Marisha Camp

When not jet-setting to obscure assignments in the U.S. and abroad, Kranitz spends most of her free time in the Appalachian region, living out of her car while documenting the residents in a project she has described as “never-ending.” Kranitz’s dedication to her work is visible in her commitment to extensive immersion in these communities, as she collects a comprehensive, in-depth and honest portrayal of each individual. Occasionally appearing alongside her subjects in photographs, she unabashedly embraces full participation, understanding that such presence ultimately affects the images she creates. Apart from using the camera as a tool to make images, she also treats it as a conduit to gain access and intimacy with those documented. Over the last few years, her archive of compelling work has grown into a number of different series, producing three monographs, that, as she states, revolve around “exploring history, representation and otherness within the documentary tradition.” Validating her standout efforts in the realm of photography, she was named TIME magazine’s pick for Instagram Photographer of the Year in 2015. —Austin McManus

Originaly published in the June, 2016 issue of Juxtapoz Magazine, on newsstands worldwide and in our webstore.

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