Sarah Jones | Violette

Colony (Couch) (I)

Consulting Room (IV)

Consulting Room (VI)

Colony (Studio) (I)

Violette 

Sarah Jones first gained international attention in the late 1990's for her photographs taken in psychoanalysts consulting  rooms and of the couch lain on during analysis. Her later well-know studies of young women in domestic interiors and in urban park settings draw attention to the relationship played out between sitter, location, camera, photographer and viewer. This is further explored in her more recent works with the life model and in the drawing studio. Diptychs of horses, and of rose bushes on display in public gardens, both emerging from inky black backgrounds, refer to the viewing of early stereographic prints. Her Wild Rose works continue to explore this black ground as well as photography as an act of drawing. Jones's most recent still lives, Cabinet, isolate found objects collecting and arranged for the camera in her studio. 

"Looks at the themes and concerns rooted in the traditions of still life and portraiture that have remained constants in her photographs - the psychoanalytic couch, doubling, photographic black, cultivated nature, hair and the studio."

"Consider a photograph by Sarah Jones, its order and its emptiness, the subtlety of textures and details that unsettle the scene."

In Sarah's photographs there is a sense of human absence. Though there is no one in these photographs (shown above) the human presence lingers with the dips and curves within the sheets and couches; they have made their mark even if it is subtle they have had impact on the scenes before you. They look at the interiors of rooms which have a negative aura surrounding them; when you think about consulting rooms and such there is a drab feeling to them, this is captured in Sarah's work through the emptiness of the images, there is little there and the colours add a cold, saddened sense around it. Though Sarah has also done still life, and work with models these images stood out to me the most with the sense of isolation around them and how she has been able to portray the rooms for what they are rather than glamorising them and making them appear "pretty" as some rooms can have a darker feel to them. She is aware of the framing of the photos that she has taken, revealing only parts of the room to the viewers, this is something to think about with my work that I am creating; what I choose to have in the frame to reveal to the viewer, particularly when looking at exteriors/interiors of buildings as it could change the mood of the piece.



Reference:
Sarah Jones Violette book.