Please tell us about yourself and how your art practice relates to the the theme of, Memory + Healing + Sustainability? *
My response:
“My relationship with art is cybernetic and polyamorous. I work through computerized equipment with ‘smart’ technology and I feel supported in it. Like two hemispheres mingling righteously, the camera and softwares internally computes and suggests ideas to me. Sharing together our opinions on the art we want to make. My artistic progression is dependent on the speed, ease, and accuracy of contemporary technology.
My relationship with the camera brought me closer to nature as well. The work I’m submitting, I hope gives some insight to my hopes for the future of my body, or specifically my black body. A body that is tightly bound to work, inequality, and debt.
I think about how my body will survive in the future? Maybe in the future I could be like a child again? Maybe I will escape into the wilderness like some of our maroon ancestors?
My body is infused with the fragments of landscapes and nature that I collect in my photographic work. A harmonious integration, I hope. Through photography and digital image making I meld deeply with those memories and the fragmented experiences. The process is meant to be transformative, just as I’m trying to transform my own turmoil.
The whole thing is science fantasy to me.”
A new revamp of the previous image
More revamps to rediscovered photos in my archives
The shores at Seaside, NJSeaside, NJOn the road to Pennsylvania Magnolia tree in Brooklyn
Lately, I started looking back at photos I’ve taken years ago. Remembering why took such photos, and giving them new identities.
There is influence here to the revival of analog photography, as well of personal circumstances of what is accessible. Being that what is not accessible tangibly, and what is abundant in the abstract and digital.
2019
Revamped ‘Snapshots’ from Seaside Heights, NJ (2020)
In July of 2020, to practice my aim, I took photos without looking through the viewfinder. In addition, I would not look at the image preview. After the first time I did it, while walking around Bushwick, I loved results. It was a good balance of capturing the approximate elements I was observing, and inviting unique, accidental compositions.
Jonas St. Juste 