Anna Gaskell (American, born October 22, 1969) is a photographer and filmmaker from Des Moines, IA. She attended Bennington College in Vermont for two years, before receiving her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1992, and an MFA from Yale University. Gaskell is best known for her photographic series she calls “elliptical narratives.” These narratives are very similar to the cinematic photographs produced by renowned artist Cindy Sherman. Like Sherman, Gaskell’s work is influenced by film and painting, rather than the conventions of photography, and continues the tradition of feminist conceptual ideas.

The artist’s early works include self-portraits, but she is most famous for her dream-like narrative photographs of pre-adolescent girls, which make reference to children’s games, literature, and psychology. In 1997, Gaskell held her first exhibition at the Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York. Included in this exhibit was a series referencing Lewis Caroll’s children’s book Alice in Wonderland. In the series, which she titled Wonder (1996–1997), each work varies in size, corresponding with the size-shifting Alice undergoes throughout the story. Gaskell was inspired by John Tenniel’s illustrations of Alice, which create ambiguous, isolated moments in a surreal setting.

Gaskell’s film influences range from the Noir to French New Wave and horror. In a series entitled Hide (1998), she sets up a narrative using the sinister Brothers’ Grimm story The Magic Donkey, which is about a young woman who disguises herself under pelts to hide from a marriage proposal from her own father. The series evokes a sense of terror through the scenery of a gothic mansion, and the contrast of light and dark in a dimly lit space.

In addition to her work in photography, Gaskell has produced a small collection of short films. Her film Replayground (2009) won for best short documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival. She also received the Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize in 2000, and the Nancy Graves Foundation Grant in 2002. Since her first show, Gaskell has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami (1998), the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (1998), and the Guggenheim in both New York and Bilbao (2002–2003). Gaskell lives and works in New York City.