Clarissa Bonet grew up in Florida. In 2000, she moved to Chicago and was struck by her newfound environment. To understand this new landscape and her role within it, she started making images, which led to two ongoing bodies of work, Stray Light and City Space. Her moody images are inspired by street photography and borrow from that tradition but they’re also influenced by the staged compositions of contemporary artists like Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Kelli Connell, and Hannah Starkey. The results are visual experiences—not documents—of the city. In 2017 and 2018 Bonet was awarded an Individual Artist Grant from the city of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to continue these projects. She hopes to someday publish these works in a book.
