Dominic Lippillo
Semifinalist

Dominic Lippillo (born 1981, Dearborn, MI; lives Starkville, MS) holds a BFA from Youngstown State University, OH and an MFA from Ohio University, Athens. He is Associate Professor of Photography at Mississippi State University, Starkville. His photographs are included in the permanent collections of the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA and University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. His work has been published in Daily Serving, Dear Dave, Don’t Take Pictures, Exposure, L’oeil de la Photographie, Mono Chroma, Oxford American and Some Recent Findings. He has received an I-Park Residency, Mississippi Arts Commission Visual Artist Fellowship, Mississippi State University Faculty Research Award, Mississippi Arts Commission Artist Mini-grants and South Arts Fellowship and was a Critical Mass Top 200 Finalist in 2016 and 2017.

Statement from the artist:
I often photograph in or around my personal surroundings in an attempt to understand the spaces and the people who once lived there. In doing so, I create photographs of experiences that exist in my mind but not in reality. I aim to create and capture fictitious moments, while subsequently calling into question the legitimacy of photographic representation by employing a practice, which utilizes staged photography, found vernacular photographs, and digital composite imagery in which I embellish the depicted information through a process of addition and deletion.