Fear Factor

Photographer explores the landscapes of fright at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Known for her work examining highly charged spaces absent of the humans that define them, Dallas-based photographer Misty Keasler has previously explored Japanese love hotels and the communities that sustain themselves off of trash piles.

For her latest series, "Haunt," on view through November 26 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, she is drawn to the landscapes of horror present in highly detailed commercial haunted houses. Devoid of the spooks and ghouls that give them their terror, the show's 40 images of interiors and exteriors nonetheless have a powerful, uneasy effect on the viewer. Keasler says she came upon the idea for the series in a roundabout way.

"I enjoy Halloween, but haunted houses were not a part of my annual traditions around this time of year," she explains. "I married someone (Dallas gallerist and art book publisher Brian Gibb) who loves haunted houses, and when we started dating he would take me to one every single year. There are a lot of haunted houses that aren't very good, but one year a group of friends and I went to Thrillvania in Terrell, and I was really drawn to how incredibly well done it was."

Originally built by Disney Imagineers, the haunted house had an element of artifice Keasler couldn't help but compare to art installations, like Ballroom Marfa's 2008 show "Hello Meth Lab in the Sun" and the long-running New York theatrical experience Sleep No More. Although those environments were created for art's sake, the commercially-based Thrillvania fascinated Keasler in a similar fashion.

"The turning point was entering a haunted house that was done so well it became immersive," Keasler says. "The socialist Margee Kerr (who wrote an essay for the show's accompanying catalog) talks about the difference between awareness and attention — with awareness, it's something that happens in the background of any given environment. In these haunted houses, if it's done really well and there's a ton of attention to detail, even if people aren't looking at the detail, they're aware of it.”

As the photographer ignored the spooks and examined the margins of each room, the idea for "Haunt" took shape. Finally gaining access to Thrillvania for a feature she shot for D Magazine in 2015, Keasler expanded the work to include a series of houses run by passionate professionals. Through her Thrillvania connections, she traveled to the creme de la creme of American haunts, capturing unpopulated areas both banal and sinister.

"All of the rooms and paths you are on lead up to a scary climax," she says. "At first I photographed whatever the climax of the room was, but as I was shooting more I had to come to terms with the fact there's no way to translate the immersive experience of being in the space — even video fails that. These guys are so skilled at touching your fear nerves at many different levels, and the visual part is just a small part of it."

Keasler found the quiet corners most intriguing, such as a view of a handcuffed bed topped with missing child posters. Through her work, she realized what frightens us culturally is what makes these spaces scary in a psychological way.

Along with her interiors, one of the most engaging sections of "Haunt" is a wall of the over-the-top characters that populate the houses. Originally referencing the portraits of photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Keasler shot actors both in and out of costume and makeup. Finding that method fell flat, she decided to give them the same serious eye she was using to portray the spaces, and the result is an almost baroquely beautiful installation of 15 of the persona that bring these thrill parks to life.

As compelling as "Haunt" is for the viewer, its creator is still intrigued enough by the subject matter to continue to explore what haunted houses say about us as a culture.

"I like the idea of making work that has open-ended question," Keasler says. "As a portrait of us, it's a pretty interesting thing to think about what it is we fear, and one of the things that’s so fascinating is how good these places are at touching that. Now that the bar's been raised, I need to seek out pretty amazing ones I haven't seen."

To get further into the exhibition's spooky spirit, the annual Modern 'til Midnight on October 27 is themed around "Haunt." From 6 pm to midnight, guests can explore Misty Keasler's photographs; join spotlight tours; enjoy spinning, dancing, and other artful antics from Ronnie Heart in the Grand Lobby; and dine on exceptional cuisine from Café Modern and the Modern Grill. An eclectic array of live music from The Bright Light Social Hour, Israel Nash, Vodeo, and Atlantis Aquarius will be featured outside along the Modern's reflecting pond.

Stop by the Modern Shop and enter to win a goody bag, and don't forget to dress up for the costume and dance contests (sorry, no masks allowed). Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 day of event and free for Modern members.

Misty Keasler. Black Thorne Manor, Terror on the Fox, Green Bay, WI

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Photography News

Carter Museum in Fort Worth showcases rare Western photos by celeb shooter

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Ruby Mercer, publicist, Frontier Days, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 7/31/82, by Richard Avedon

Photographer Richard Avedon is best known for his work in fashion and portraits, but the Amon Carter Museum of American Art is showcasing another glorious side.

Called"Avedon's West," it's an installation of select works Avedon shot from 1979-1985 for an exhibit that was commissioned by The Carter in 1979. That exhibit, called "In the American West," was a landmark body of work of 124 photographs.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Avedon's birth, the Carter will showcase 13 of those 124 photographs, several on view for the first time since their 1985 premiere.

The museum-wide installation is on view at the Carter now through October 1.

"We are excited to take part in the national celebration of Richard Avedon’s 100th birthday and to have the opportunity to highlight this influential project, which our museum commissioned nearly 45 years ago,” says Carter Executive Director Andrew J. Walker in a statement.

"Today, Avedon’s 'In the American West' is regarded as a turning point in the photographic canon, challenging conceptions of portraiture and late twentieth-century American life," Walker says. "We are proud to be a part of the history of this monumental project, which is rooted in the Carter’s long-held commitment to working with living artists to tell a broader story of American art."

In 1979, the Carter commissioned Avedon to create a portrait of the region. He spent the next six summers, from 1979 to 1984, traveling to 189 towns in 13 states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming — and into Canada.

He conducted 752 sittings of everyday and often marginalized people - oilfield and slaughterhouse workers, coal miners, students, and service workers - in the same iconic style he used in portraits of celebrities and politicians: against a seamless white backdrop, designed to remove visual markers of place and focus on the individuality of each person.

Each photograph is titled with subject name, location, date, and an occupation. The 1985 exhibition was regarded as a landmark work of portraiture and a definitive expression of the power of photographic art.

Highlights of the works on view in Avedon’s West include the following subjects and commentaries:

Ruby Mercer, publicist, Frontier Days, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 7/31/82 (1982) — This portrait is on view in the Modern America gallery, which highlights the explosive growth of technological advances and urban development in the twentieth century, and artists’ responses to these dramatic transformations. Avedon’s portrait of Mercer not only highlights the role of working women in the West, which is often overlooked in antiquated narratives of the region, but her profession as a publicist emphasizes the business of selling the West as a commodity.

Carol Crittendon, bartender, Butte, Montana, 7/1/81 (1981) — While most western art features male figures such as Euro-American cowboys, "In the American West" expands the narrative incorporating women more fully into the story of the West. Two photographs of Montanan women, including this portrait, are on view in the Legacy Gallery alongside iconic works by Charles Russell, who lived in Montana for over 40 years, broadening the gallery’s presentation of the American West to include other genders and professions.

Blue Cloud Wright, slaughterhouse worker, Omaha, Nebraska, 8/10/79 (1979), Avedon’s portrait of Wright is on view in the America as Landscape gallery, a space dedicated to depictions by nineteenth-century artists of the landscapes of what is now the United States. This positioning allows viewers to confront the reality of the slaughterhouse industry in a gallery that probes the relationships between humans, animals, and land in American national identity.

Rusty McCrickard, janitor, Tracey Featherston, motel maid, Dixon, California, 5/10/81 (1981) — As a photographer who spent his career photographing the powerful and famous, Avedon’s decision to turn his attention toward picturing everyday people in the same monumental style declares their importance and poses questions about class and equality that reverberate today. This portrait, on view in the Opulence and the Everyday gallery, focuses on the artwork that blossomed out of the affluence of the late nineteenth century. The insertion of Avedon’s subjects within the surrounding representations of wealthy socialites further reinforces the artist’s mission to democratize portraiture.

Richard Avedon galleries museums openings