Fine Art nominee

We Belong in the Sky is a self portrait that utilizes color and body manipulation to mold the subject to the natural environment. This photograph is part of an ongoing series that expresses the relationship that we all have with the natural world, and therefore our responsibility to protect it.

Vanessa Merritt is an Indian-American 35mm film and digital photographer and performer living in Michigan. By adopting a variety of art making approaches, Merritt works through lens based technologies, as well as mixed media and movement arts, to explore the intersections of the political and the personal. They create powerful contemporary fine art projects and photograph everything from minority communities to acrobats, including documenting queer relationships throughout the United States and body manipulation in indoor and natural spaces. A largely self-taught photographer, the framework of their practice crystallizes through the disciplines of feminism, queer theory, and environmentalism. A recent graduate from the University of Michigan, Merritt hopes to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Photography and teach photography courses at the undergraduate level. Their website is vanessamerritt.com and their work can be found on instagram at @vanessamerritt_