Jennifer McClure

An image popped on my Twitter feed that I just loved.  As I mentioned in an earlier post it was one of two images that I found really interesting in relation the the light project I am currently working on so I have spent some time looking at the photographer who took it.  Jennifer McClure is based in New York, has won several prestigious awards and is probably working on quite similar themes to me.
On her website she says, "We are not supposed to talk about being lonely. Loneliness is a shameful condition that should be cured, that we should sort out by ourselves."  I think this is what I am so attracted to in McClure's work - this refusal to avoid looking at something awkward, painful and difficult but which is endemic in our culture due to the way we have structured ourselves.
She also says, "The act of photographing my fears allows me to become comfortable in the present", and I think there is something really important here for me.
What I also find attractive in McClure's work is that although she looks at themes that are usually ignored by mainstream culture she isn't self-pitying in the least, anything but. She also manages to incorporate humour although it may be dark such as in this image where she is moving and the spinning top is still, which I thought was great - wish I'd thought of it!
McClure has two sets of photographs on her website in which she is in the photographs and another two sets where the camera is faced outwards. She apparently started taking photographs of herself due to an illness that prevented her from going out and photographing others.  I have to say I think the ones of herself are stronger.  She really shares her vulnerability with the viewer in a way that feels incredibly brave which is what I think makes her work so powerful.
In You Who Never Arrived you get a real sense of those moments in life where things should be good but they aren't because you're unable to enjoy the moment for one reason or another - loneliness being one of them without or without someone else, or indeed others, beside you.  I think lighting plays a huge part in this sense - the way we are affected by light is critical and McClure really uses it in her images:  this one is a really clear example and I like how she is slightly out of focus here too.
Looking through her site tonight I think I have clearly been quite influenced by it when I think about my own recent work and what I've done so far for A4, even though I only took a quick look at McClure's site last week!
I am really glad to have come across this work and I'm sure what I have learnt from it will play a big part in my own developing style.

Website