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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until January 01, 2025

ETD Abstract Container

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Killer Style: An Investigation of Rodney Alcala’s Street Style Photography

Farrell, Evann Anne
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou159792067991252

Abstract Details

2020, Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, Art History (Fine Arts).
This paper explores the unidentified street style photographs left behind by prolific serial killer Rodney Alcala. Alcala is a convicted rapist and serial killer active between the years of 1971 and 1979. When Alcala was arrested in 1979, he was found to possess hundreds of photographs of women and young girls, all of which he obtained under the guise of fashion photography. By operating as a fashion photographer, Alcala was able to employ his camera as a weapon to lure unsuspecting, yet fashionable young women to their possible death. In 2010 Alcala was subsequently sentenced to death in California for five murders and received an additional 25 years to life after pleading guilty to two more homicides committed in New York. While Alcala's true victim count remains unknown, police speculate that it is highly likely that some of the unidentified women photographed could be additional victims of Alcala. Alcala’s photographic collection included a variety of posed portraits and candid snapshots of fashionable yet unsuspecting young women and girls. However, two of Alcala's unidentified street style photographs, containing a set of stylish young women, have particularly seized my imagination. The two images disrupt the truth and reality of what I am seeing, forcing me to question my intense fascination with the mysterious women forever frozen in time and space by a serial killer. By reading these images through the use of visual and material culture methodologies, I reveal the intersecting relationship between the camera, costume, and gender performance as a means to communicate, and capture identity in the hope that I can free these two women from the label of victim.
Jennie Klein, Dr. (Advisor)
Jody Lamb (Committee Member)
Patty Stokes (Committee Member)
81 p.
Art History; Gender Studies
Rodney Alcala; Serial Killers; Photography; Street Style; Art

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Farrell, E. A. (2020). Killer Style: An Investigation of Rodney Alcala’s Street Style Photography [Master's thesis, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou159792067991252

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Farrell, Evann. Killer Style: An Investigation of Rodney Alcala’s Street Style Photography. 2020. Ohio University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou159792067991252.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Farrell, Evann. "Killer Style: An Investigation of Rodney Alcala’s Street Style Photography." Master's thesis, Ohio University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou159792067991252

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.