Teri Fullerton

(American, b. 1965; resides in Minneapolis, MN)

Teri Fullerton observes different communities to find the underlying human condition and feelings of loneliness, desire, and the search for a home.  In her portrait series, After War, Fullerton depicts the inner struggles of war veterans. Her photographs aim to portray what she believes to be an opposing desire to return to combat and to remain stateside with loved ones. For Fullerton, the veterans exist in a state of limbo between their identities as soldiers and their longing for their familiar lives before war. She places each subject in a landscape with foliage resembling camouflage, representing feelings of uncertainty and the desire to conceal one’s self in plain sight.

Building on overarching themes of vulnerability and loneliness, Fullerton extends her scope to the online dating community in her series Internet Dating. Here she focuses on the societal pressure on single people to find partners and build families and looks to the ways that people use technology to connect to strangers. Much like the war veterans searching for a home, Fullerton sees “people looking for [a] homecoming,” although in this particular series, they “may long to find it in a partner, lover or fling.”

Fullerton completed a BA at California State University, Sacramento, CA (1994), a MA at Portland State University, OR (1996), and a MFA at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, MN (2008). Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, including at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (2013); MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis, MN (2011); IFP Media Arts, St. Paul, MN (2011); and the Hawthorne Art Gallery, Portland, OR (2005). Her work is held in the collection of the Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR. Fullerton is the recipient of McKnight Fellowship for Photographers (2012), Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant (2012), and the Jerome Foundation Fellowship (2010).

https://www.terifullerton.com/