Hello there! It's Jocelyn Mathewes from my studio in Appalachia. And I've just completed two new pieces that feels particularly vulnerable, because they contain photographs of my own body.
At first, these photographs lived as personal record of my symptoms. They served as a means for me to step outside my body and make my illness visible to my doctors and healers. I became meticulous in my record-keeping, because without documentation, I found was less likely to be believed.
Time passed, and the photographs accumulated. I printed them out in series, but they still felt too clinical and straightforward to me — like the photographs of a stranger's body in an odd before/after brochure.
So I turned to film, specifically Polaroid emulsion lifts.