North Carolina based photographer Angela Byers works primarily in digital and Polaroid photography. After a vision disorder led her to photography in 2007, she wholeheartedly chose to chase life with a camera, in order to catch and observe what she was often unable to previously see.
Statement
‘Seeing through the Negatives’ is a call to see that despite painful emotions and feelings, healing is possible.
This work is an exploration of internal, often unspoken struggles that make us all human:
I investigate themes of heartbreak, loneliness, self-doubt, loss, grief, anger and hurt.
Displaying outwardly that everything is fine has had a toll on my soul.
Self-Portraiture takes me from isolation and feeling like I’m crawling out of my own skin to a sense of connection both with myself and with the world around me.
It was a deeply conscious choice to explore these stories in a black and white process, as an internal mirror to represent the depths of despair, and through the healing nature of photography, the return of lightheartedness.
While this series stems from my own personal journey, I’m also breaking down the barriers between us by voicing what all of us go through silently. I’m acknowledging that we are not alone in this and that we can all transform something challenging into something more beautiful.
Using long short exposures, digital photography processes, and both digital and handwritten techniques, I create visually what lives and breathes just underneath the surface.
