Behind the Lens 2020: Women in Photography
About: Jess Voas
Jess was raised in Auburn, Massachusetts where she first experimented with art and expression, utilizing all mediums at her disposal. She graduated in 2014 from Fitchburg State University with a dual-bachelors degree in photography and literature. Studying photography under Peter Laytin, she acquired significant darkroom and analogue experience that holds a primitive influence in her work.
Following graduation, she completed an internship at Anderson Ranch in Snowmass Village CO, where she assisted workshops for a number of contemporary photographers in digital mediums, bookmaking, WordPress, as well as wet plate collodion printing.
From 2014-2019, she worked as an Imaging Specialist at a nationally renowned publication.
Jess is a current graduate student at Lesley University, obtaining her Masters degree in Photography and Integrated Media. Her personal work has been exhibited in various group exhibitions, and can be found in a number of private collections throughout the U.S. She is the proud founder of the Boston based photography group Photo Lounge (https://photoloungeofboston.wordpress.com), creating space and community for local photographers of all backgrounds.
Her most recent work (https://jessvoas.com/images/) explores her recent losses paralleled with her grandmothers loss of vision, revealing instances of temporality in life.
Artist Statement: I just wanted to call and say I love you
My photographs explore the physical and emotional space I find myself in while living with my 91 year old sightless grandmother. Sixty years apart, we are paralleled by the residue of our experiences, mine emotional, hers physical. We act as a refuge for one another, a temporary sanctuary in the world that lies beyond our home. While living with her, I received a letter in the mail indicative of the life I’ve left behind, a letter that challenges and disrupts this sanctuary. I am caught between the past and the future: as I rebuild my life, my grandmother is a glimpse into my own future, which is genetically inevitable. These photographs represent the acceptance of these challenges, the beauty of our relationship, while always keeping in mind the temporal nature in which we exist.
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