Envisioning Normality
February 1, 2010
Envisioning Normality: The Photo Essay
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This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the ASMP Nor Cal’s Thomas Werner and a Day of Fine Art Photography event. Thomas Werner’s talks and portfolio review were candid, funny, informative and inspiring. I also had the pleasure of meeting many other talented Bay Area photographers. Collaboratively, we are hoping to get an ASMP Nor Cal Fine Art Photography group off the ground. (There are many professional photography associations out there – ASMP, APA, NPAA – all aimed at media, press, and advertising photographers but to my knowledge the USA is lacking a national association that provides resources for Fine Art photographers).
Breaking out my portfolio and airing the dust off the, “Envisioning Normality Series,” at this event made me realize it was time to revisit my approach as a visual anthropologist and a photographer and to work harder to marry the two together – to push my images towards a deeper visual intelligence. It also helped me to remember how the processes of visual anthropology/ethnography add to the richness of my conceptual photography projects.
What does this mean for the future of Jana Carrey Photography?
It means a lot of work … as well as creative COLLABORATION, COLLABORATION, COLLABORATION! ( I believe, this is the wave of the future in terms of photographic, visual, and new media projects). In addition to continuing and deepening my work on my Childhood series as well as developing the Sustainable Titties project, in time I will revisit Envisioning Normality and take this work to another level…to explore and promote greater understanding among children with serious illnesses and disabilities and how we all strive for normality in our lives. This work is far from over… this is life’s work. Attached you will find my ethnographic photo essay that exhibited alongside my Envisioning Normality Series during a number of exhibitions in the UK, Fall 2007, including Photomonth 07.
