Keliy Anderson-Staley managed to capture the beauty in insignificance, taking pictures of thirty families living in Maine isolated with no electricity, plumbing, or phones (not even iPads), to create her portfolio Off the Grid. She herself grew up in one of these log cabins, giving her the perspective to master her craft of photography and capture what needed to be captured. These families she photographed live isolated from the societal mechanisms that bind us together, and when they separated themselves, something beautiful was created that she was able to detain. She states the artistic meaning herself when she says, “I see this project as an examination oh how homes become an expression of personal ideology.” She goes on to speak of the, “mundane details of the material worlds”, and through her art, shows us the pains of societal constraint and how they affect the beauty of the world. The appeal of her idiosyncratic style helped her become a highly regarded photographer and a position as a runner up for the 2009 Aperture Portfolio Prize where her exhibit was displayed as a videocast in Daylight Magazine.

Her photographs were recently posted in Ahorn, a publication dedicated to contemporary photography. The magazine is directed and edited by Daniel Augschoell and Anya Jasper, and they seem to have the same goals as Keily, and the same thoughts of beauty found through the bleak.