Author Archives: jolanta

Zigzagging across the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the International Date Line (IDL) is the imaginary line on the earth that separates two consecutive calendar days and indicates the boundary line between “today” and “tomorrow.” Despite its name, the precise location of the IDL is not fixed by any international law, treaty, or agreement. Even […]

My current series Fallen explores images of childhood perspectives, in which distortions of scale display a dreamy and surrealistic quality. Once familiar landscapes take on an ethereal quality, they evoke a sense of fear and wonder. Some images in the series create a dark tension and others, an uplifting magical realism—both reminiscent of a mythological […]

In one of my daytime dreams, I was climbing up the biggest minaret. Darkness appeared everywhere. There were smelly ivies. There were women, too—their size like a cup, their hands on their belly. I was walking up the stairs of the minaret beside them. I kept walking, and more women appeared. There were so many […]

When I first saw Dorte and Villy standing at the bar in matching red anoraks I was at a crossroads in my life, also in relationship to photography. The book 3×1 marked a major departure in my work, where the social realism of previous projects was superseded by the universal and familiar. The intimacy, banality, […]

I was born and raised in the land of lovers and Sufi poets (Punjab); love and spirituality are in my bones. It is interesting how the environment plays a role in shaping one’s concerns. The impact of early days of democracy, then 11 dark years of dictatorship followed by occasional glimpses of elected governments, and […]

Appalachia has been the smoky base flavor of my work even as I’ve lived in New York City, Florida, Hawaii, and Arizona. Living now in my family hometown in Bristol, Tennessee, I look to my roots directly. I am troubled by the artistic gentrification that would rob me of a heritage. Because I’ve come to think that a voice […]

“There has been nothing new in art since 1915” was something that I blurted out to an art professor 21 years ago at a party. It turned out to be an awkward conversation stopper, and obviously untrue in terms of art history. I was only trying to get across that the seeds of most of […]

Water, for me, is a place to research. Primordial water is the birthplace of works of art. Everything originated from small organisms that float in the waters, which were once transformed, not only in our imagination, into fantastic beings, like seductive sirens. Tenuous forms come to life through light, and suggest shapes through their absence. In my works—works built with […]

Sam Henry: I first heard about your work in a critique class at School of Visual Arts. One student started talking about Nan Goldin and the teacher mentioned you. He tried to be brief by describing your work as “pictures of the photographer’s mom with her lovers.” There were a few muffled gasps to go […]