Dalton Gantt - Round About the Cauldron Go — School of Visual Art and Design at the University of South Carolina

Dalton Gantt
Round About the Cauldron Go

Photography Senior

If someone asked you what a witch is, you would probably say that they’re evil old women who fly on broomsticks and cook children in their ovens, unless you know a real witch. Then you would know that witches can be anybody. They can be female, male, nonbinary, or somewhere in-between. They could be dressed in all black or bright colors. You’ll also find that they’re not evil. The stories we heard as children depict witches in a negative way because for most of our history, society has viewed witches that way. Only fairly recently has society begun to tell stories of good witches such as in L. Frank Baum’s 1900 classic children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Since then we have had more complex witches, reflecting our changing society. In my series, I wanted to depict the progression of witches being viewed as scary and evil to the modern take on witchcraft. This series serves as a tribute to both fictional witches and real witches and documents a little of my practice as well.