Jennifer Colten

JenniferColten.com

These photographs explore questions of place. The unnamed environments exhibit clear detail and nonspecific location. The images point to particular things, yet no identifying information is gained and the unsettling sites at times bear likeness to a crime scene. These are not precise documents — the photographs are not exact records and do not describe particular locations. Instead these are places unnoticed and vulnerable. The visible marks and traces left behind could easily be erased, removing any certain history or evidence.

The clearest sense of orientation in a landscape’s depiction lies in the location of the horizon line. Here the horizons are often eliminated, rendering the viewer slightly off balance, searching for direction and clear footing.

This work searches for an articulation of place hovering at the margins of the urban landscape. Whether the occurrences at these locations were dramatic or banal, real or imagined, a remnant exists. The sites express an intentional unease, as a sense of displacement mirrors our current culture of insecurity and longing.

— Jennifer Colten, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Jennifer Ray

www.JenniferRay.net

This series of photographs, titled Marginal, examines life on the fringes of Detroit, Chicago, and Gary, IN.  These lonely, undeveloped places are populated by castoff belongings and people who have nowhere else to go.  Though the people who pass through are never around for the picture, the evidence of their presence provides clues into deciphering their marginal existence.

— Jennifer Ray, Chicago, USA