Patty Carroll

Patty Carroll (b. 1946, Chicago), the First Prize Winner of the BBA Photography Prize 2023, has been known for her use of highly intense, saturated colour photographs since the 1970’s. She received her BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois (1968), and MS in Photography at the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology (1972). After many years of teaching photography, she has returned to the studio creating her current project, “Anonymous Women;” a 4-part series of studio installations made for the camera, addressing women and their complicated relationships with domesticity. By literally and physically camouflaging the figure in drapery and/or domestic objects, Carroll creates a dark and humorous game of hide-and-seek between her viewers and the Anonymous Woman. The woman becomes a victim of her obsessions, activities, and circumstances as well as the invisible creator of such; at once satisfying and problematic, pathetic and humorous.

The photographs are published in two monographs, Anonymous Women (2017, Daylight Books), and Anonymous Women: Domestic Demise (2020, Ain’t Bad Books). 

The Anonymous Woman series has been exhibited internationally and has won multiple awards including Carroll being acknowledged as one of Photolucida’s “Top 50” in 2014 and 2017. Select grants/prizes include Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship, 2003 and 2020, Pangea winner of the Siena Photo Awards for Series in the Creative category, 2023. Her work has been featured in prestigious publications such as the Huffington Post, The Cut, Ain’t Bad Magazine, and BJP. Carroll’s work has been exhibited in over 100 group exhibitions in China and Europe, as well as regularly in the USA. She was Artist in Residence at Studios Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri from 2016-2021. She currently resides and works in Chicago.