Jess LeClair Photography Blog

Yes, folks, you read it right! My work has been published in the very first issue of a brand spanking new magazine called Catharsis. You can buy a copy of it at their Lulu storefront. You can also download a pdf of the magazine (it’s less, but you still have to pay) just to see it. There is also a free sample of the magazine, but its only 19 of the 55 pages and alas, my image isn’t included in those 19 pages. Bummer.

However. Because I am so nice (and because the image is already up on flickr!) here is the image that was published:

I made this photocollage (AKA a Hockney, a joiner, a photomontage) while I was living out in L.A. (2001-2002). Creating it was about a lot of things for me, but mostly the way that women tend to feel they have multiple-personality disorder about their bodies and the extremes we go with eating or purging. Also the deeply mixed messages we are handed by society and the media, especially in advertising.

I did this with film and prints so no digital manipulation at all. I just photographed it again to get it into the computer. Making this kind of image is one of my favorite things to do. So here are a few more:

I did this one while I was living in Ireland. This is a lovely little street corner in Galway. This was also done with film and put together by just stacking the prints and taping them down. Its really much better to see it big, so if you click on the pictrue and go to my flickr site, you can see it bigger. Also, if anyone is interested in buying a print of any of these, they are all for sale. Email me for more information.

This one is one of my favorites and one of the first entirely digital ones I did. In March of 2006, I flew to Seattle to help my brother move out of his apartment and pack up his little bitty Honda Civic with all his worldly possessions (and a few otherworldly possessions) so he could move back to the east coast (he’s in Cambridge now). On the way, instead of going straight back home, the two of us drove all the way down the west coast and into the desert to Las Vegas so he and my friend James could throw me a little bachelorette party. This image is a record of that drive from Seattle to Las Vegas. Each photo is from a different point in during the two and a half days it took us to get to there. We went from snow and sleet in Seattle through rain and wind and vivid bright green fields to finally arid desert and neon lights. Its hard to see all those pieces when it is this tiny on the screen. Its best viewed at its largest size, so click on the photo and see it on my flickr site!

This is another digital one. Its an abandoned school bus in Belfast that someone is using as a storage bin. Its just jam packed with stuff. So I let it really distort in the middle there. Again, its best seen big.

I’ve also done these types of collage as portraits.  I have lots more to say about that, but this post is getting very long, so I think it will have to wait for another post!

To Be Continued…

I have always loved cemeteries and graveyards.  Some people may find that strange or morbid (or a slightly pathetic attempt to be goth).  A friend told me recently that she finds it disrespectful to be in a cemetery when you don’t know anyone there who has passed.  She felt that cemeteries are for the grieving and as such, should be left well enough along.  I disagree.  Cemeteries are for the grieving certainly, and must be approached with respect, but they are also a place where people go to remember the people they love.  Cemeteries for some act as a place they can go to be near the ones they have lost.  People put up beautiful monuments to honor the love they have that lives past death.  And people can do some pretty cool things when they love.  So grieve, yes, but remember and love, too.

There is also a slightly sentimental part of me that feels sorry for the stones of people who died so long ago that no one living remembers them.  So I visit them to make them feel less lonely.  Silly, maybe, but I find it leaves me feeling very peaceful to walk among the monuments to the dead.

Anywho.

I’ve mentioned before that I lived in Ireland for the first half of 1999, while attending the Burren College of Art (see the post about my friend Alahna). One of the projects I worked on while I was there was a photographic study of the local cemeteries and graveyards. More specifically, the things people would leave on graves to remember their loved ones.

The things I found most often were these little globes. Filled with a small plastic religious icon (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were the most common followed by any number of saints and holy people), water and fake flowers, they were simply every where.

Each slightly different, each beautiful and eerie in its own way.

The graves themselves were often covered with gravel and/or small colored stones (the kind you’d find in a fish bowl, only slightly larger) instead of grass.

Some had been there so long they’d broken or simply just rotted away.

This was one of the last photos I took while photographing the series. I’d seen other graves with a small stone platform, low to the ground, with an elegant engraving encouraging the visitor to “Kneel and Pray”. This family must have simply run out of money for the professional engraving, but wanted the sentiment nonetheless. The idea that their love and faith was stronger than their lack of money was moving to me. In fact, I found the image so powerful that it became representative of the whole group of images and I eventually used it at the title for and main image of my senior show at Brown.

I met Alahna when I was living in Ireland in 1999 and attending the Burren College of Art for a semester. Amazingly enough, she was also from Maine and struggling with so many of the same issues I was. We bonded very quickly.

I photographed her a lot while we were in Ireland. She is infinitely photograph-able and put up with me quite well.

I mean really, how could you not like this woman? Besides her kindness and HUGE heart, she is just, like, totally adorable!

Though this picture is kinda crappy (taken with a disposable camera in low light - yikes!) it is a great reminder of all the fun we had (and all the Guinness we drank).

One of my favorite photos of myself in Ireland is this one that Alahna took of me:

It really has nothing to do with the photo itself and everything to do with the story behind it. We were at the Cliffs of Moher (for probably the 3rd or 4th time) and Alahna noticed this little display that was playing Irish music. And she said, “Oh! Music! Stand in front of it and I’ll take your picture.”

Um, you want to take a picture of me with the music?

Hence the look on my face.

Our friendship survived the long voyage back across the pond and has strengthened so much in the intervening years. We both finished college and struggled with what to do next in our lives.

And then this guy happened.

And then this happened (as these things tend to).

She is five months pregnant in this picture. I took this at her baby shower in August of 2006.

At the time, she and Tom (the guy) were (and sadly still are) living in Colorado. So when she was home in Maine on a summer visit, her parents took the opportunity to throw her a big ol’ party. It was amazing and sweet to see the huge outpouring of love for her and this new life growing inside of her. The party was held in the gym of the elementary school where her mother works and where Alahna attended once upon a time. I stole her away from the party for a few precious minutes to take some photos.

Much to my dismay, these are the only pictures I was able to take of her during her pregnancy. The next time I saw her was almost a year later and by then the baby was very much on the outside.

Armando Mael, AKA Manny, is almost 8 months old in these pictures. Hes got such a great expression on his face here. Like he is not quite sure what the thing strapped to my face is or why its pointed in his direction.

Alahna can make him laugh SO HARD. There are very few things better than baby giggles and his are some of the best.

Alahna and Tom were both very excited I caught this face on film. Evidently he makes it all the time, but this is the first time they’d gotten him to do it for a camera. Holy Strange Face, Batman!

I love how concerned he looks in this picture.

Alahna’s sister is also named Jessica, so I will be his Auntie Jess while she gets to be his Aunt Jessie. Terribly confusing, I know, but what else are we to do? He has to call me something! Hopefully they’ll all move back to Maine in another year or so when Alahna is finished with her advanced schooling. And then I’ll have this little guy and his momma to photograph to my hearts content! Just as with Laura and her family, it is so much fun to have a whole new generation of friends to play with. I love my work!