Juliana Gagné

juliana-gagne.squarespace.com

Nebula 2018, 35mm photo, 4x6 inches

Bleached 2018, 35mm photo, 6x4 inches

Nolita 2018, 35mm photo, 4x6 inches

Schmetterling 2018, 35mm photo, 6x4 inches

Turbine 2018, 35mm photo, 6x4 inches

Zeig mir deine Zähne, 2018, 35mm photo, 6x4 inches

Artist Statement

My photos exist in a state between fantasy and reality, between being asleep and awake. I take photos with a disposable camera that I manipulate or destroy before developing the film. I have no photography training and embrace the amateur aspect from using a disposable camera, disregarding traditional techniques and having my photos developed by a lab. The film is destroyed to give up control, and the process alludes to entropy, the natural order of chaos and destruction in the universe. Sometimes the colors or focus is changed, the film has been eaten away at by chemicals, or light leaks have occurred. Many of the photos were taken during an altered state of consciousness, and by manipulating the film I seek to bring them back visually and experientially to the original way I perceived the situation. The world I create with my photography mirrors another absolute truth, everything that is born dies, from people to stars, to the universe. My photos capture the decay, the aging; the way cells start to degrade over time, only noticed slowly at first and then with increasing rapidity. I create my own universe with my photos, one in which I am the creator and destroyer.