Description
OD Photo Prize 2024 | Judges’ Pick
Selected by Tom Page
Founder & Director, Open Doors Gallery
“This project ticked lot of boxes for me. I love the research element. The mix of original and found images. The sense of foreboding across the series and the tension this creates across the series… The images seem to be almost prophetic. The most brutal and destructive traits of humanity play out in each frame as if they were stills captured from an Adam Curtis documentary. We can only hope this isn’t a glimpse into our future.
Each year I try and select work that grabs my attention but also surprises me. J.A Young’s work is also interesting to me as they have had no formal training in photography and I think this is evident in the best possible ways. Their work seems fresh and instinctual and as they only started taking photography seriously last year, I’m very excited about how their practice develops in the years ahead. I’ll be pre-ordering their book for sure.”
— Tom Page
J.A. Young (b. 1986) is a queer photographer / multi-media artist based in the American South. Their work draws on a range of influences, including cultural anthropology, world mysticism, the occult, and paranormal phenomena. Using both personal photographs and public domain archival images as raw materials, Young employs various methods (e.g., spontaneous print manipulation, dramatic recomposition, collage, and rephotography) to transform subtle feelings into tangible visual expressions.
Artist Statement | “The culmination of meticulous research and intuitive experimentation, American multimedia artist and photographer J.A. Young’s first monograph, Of Fire, Far Shining, is a non-rational, starkly intimate body of work devoid of classical ordering principles.
Using both personal photographs and public domain archival images as raw materials, Young radically decontextualizes and transmutes these forms, immersing the viewer in a world where the utility of the image is dissolved and new, evocative meanings can emerge.
Through a layered process of dramatic recomposition, physical print manipulation, and rephotography, Young unravels an intensely emotional and associative narrative that explores what it feels like to live in an era marked by rampant militarization, technological hyper-violence, and unrelenting ecological devastation.“ — J.A. Young
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All print enquiries:
tom@opendoors.gallery
+44 (0)7769922824
