I am a photographic artist based out of Chapel Hill, NC. I work in both analog and digital platforms, often combining the two. I love the simplicity of the analog camera, often working with a large format camera, as it forces you to slow down, think and focus. At the same time, I love the magic of the digital world that allows you to fabricate images much as a painter would. As I have always existed in a multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual space, my work focuses on ideas of identity, home, family, and community. These are things that for those of us in between, can be elusive. I focus mostly on portraiture and still life. Recently I have turned the camera on myself and my two kids and have been making work that looks at gender and identity, trying to figure out how we see ourselves and how that compares to how the world sees us. I photograph people of lots of different identities not to see their differences, but to see the beauty in their sameness. The work is about seeing and being seen, especially for the things we would normally pass over.

This work was made using a Sony alpha 7R with a 16-55 f2.8 lens. I also use a 4×5 view camera, a Yashica D 2 1/4 square twin lens reflex, and occasionally my dad’s old Leica screw mount cameras.

 

jen@jennifercantwell.com

336-500-3009