Kelli Connell


Kelli Connell is a contemporary American photographer. Connell is known for creating portraits, which may appear as self-portraits, similar to the portrait work by Cindy Sherman. Her work is held in the collections of Microsoft, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the Dallas Museum of Art.

Artistic career

Kelli Connell became a photographer to explore how photography can raise questions. In 2011, the Decode Books released her first monograph, labeled Double Life. In which she presented 36 arts of color of two young women occupied in their day to day activities of pleasure and reflection. Double Life seeks to question ideas of identity, gender roles, and expectations made by society on the individual. The series, which depicts a woman in a romantic relationship with herself, shows the "couple" having intimate and private moments in their lives. Connell uses the art to define the multiple sides of the self in the overall human experience. The portraits are also a case of identity. In an interview for The Advocate, Connell named Roni Horn, Francesca Woodman, James Turrell, and Seiichi Furuya as artists from whom she draws inspiration. Connell worked with the same model over a series of years to produce the work.
She is currently a professor at Columbia College Chicago.

Personal life

Connell is married to sculptor Betsy Odom.

Major collections