Created in the depths of reflection in the year 2020. A developing body of work, which began at the beginning of the year, on the south coast of New South Wales, making site specific work and conducting interviews, during the aftermath of the bush fires that ravaged our country. The making of the work is intimate and involved, developing connections with the subjects through contemplative conversation.
The work is an exploration of our current world, overwhelmed in the waves of disaster, yearning for transformation and radical change. The artist visited their home in the wake of the fires, and sat with individuals moving through the chaos, trauma, and upheaval as they recounted their experiences and navigated their way forward. This process was important, to humanize a climate disaster of such an immense scale, to assemble intimate recollections, with the intention being to affect others by personalizing this event. With the hope that we can learn and navigate a way forward into a world in which we are each accountable, take action and recognize how interconnected we are.
The artist left Australia’s climate disaster and returned to the United States a few months into 2020, to arrive into the wake of another disaster, a worldwide pandemic, which brought about the dismantling of society and revealed systematic failures, inequality, and an uprising demanding change.
Created in the midst of isolation and lockdown, and the time that flowed on from that, the work explores the creation of new universes, ideas of transformation and imagination as a means of processing traumatic events and creating new spaces to exist, in a world that feels as if it is crumbling around us. The work mimics cellular blobs, planetary shapes, and cosmic galaxies, exploring ideas related to our own cellular make-up. As our bodies became the target of a virus and we were forced to examine and develop an acute awareness of ourselves and the space we inhabit in relation to one another. This body of work began as a means of escape, into a universe apart from our own, manipulating photographic chemistry to create a cosmos, which became a space to explore freedom and the promise of a beyond attained through self-reflection and collaboration.
Angela Jones is a 31-year-old Australian female artist currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Angela completed a BFA/BA in Photomedia/Film Studies at UNSW in Sydney, graduating with honours in 2013. She relocated to New York shortly after to pursue photography, particularly alternative photographic processes. Angela came to the United States with the intention of utilizing the great access to knowledge in this field. Angela’s practise is heavily process driven. She currently specialises in the 19th century wet plate collodion photographic process and creates portraits and landscapes using this medium. The engagement with the physicality of the photographic material is important in the making of her images. This process allows the artist to complete all steps of the image making process, from mixing the raw chemical elements to creating the final print. The subject of Angela’s work is able to engage with her image-making process, which allows for a unique and intimate experience. Angela wants a photograph to be an engagement between the subject and the medium recording them and continues to work with the wet plate collodion process for this reason.
Submit your work to be considered for solo or group exhibitions in Head On Photo Festival.
Enthralling. Enchanting. Extraordinary. Discover exceptional photography for free around Sydney during the festival 8 Nov–1 Dec 2024
