Poignant Pics no. 87: On J. K. Lavin's “Mapping the History of the Moon”
“Attentiveness is self-awareness – you are aware of yourself paying attention.”
Full Moon Shadow
Blue Moon
Recently I was browsing an online catalog of Art in Nature II - The Moment of Creation, an exhibition held at the Museum of Nature of Cantabria this year when I ran into work from J.K. Lavin's series entitled Mapping the History of the Moon. I guessed from the style that these were ICM images. I was instantly taken with the image, as it felt like it was taken moments before something happened…and it left me questioning what that something might be. I wanted to see more of this work!
One of the things I love most about photography is how it can be as impersonal and detached as news reportage or as personal as bearing our most intimate thoughts and experiences. Any regular reader knows that I am deeply drawn to the latter. I love seeing a photographer's soul on the page. I had always considered that as how they see, what they show, what they choose to tell. But Lavin's work did something different.
These images are the literal embodiment of her presence as the maker; what I had interpreted as ICM was, in reality, her breathing as she handheld the camera during the long exposure required for evening using an analog 35mm camera and color print film. As such, her breathing and body movements become intrinsic to the photograph. Multi-media artist Jessica Stockholder has talked about a trend with a younger generation of image makers than her own, stating, "There's an effort to value the evidence of the hand and the handmade thing while also acknowledging the way in which the making of things with hands has such a complex, alienated place in our culture." I have no idea if Lavin is of the same or a newer generation of artists than Stockholder, but I see this idea in this series of photographs. Lavin said, "Inserting myself into the image acknowledges my artist's hand and records the passage of time. The series began unintentionally - grabbing my camera as I stepped outside to get some air after midnight during a very stressful time. The photographs haunted me, and later, I began a ritual of photographing during the full moon. Now, I am marking time and place, breathing as I hold the camera, feeling one with the experience of creating a photograph. Focusing on the unknown, in the shadows of the full moon rising and setting, I feel time passing in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years. Each full moon invokes the memory of that long-ago moonlit night."
What a serendipitous origin for this gorgeous and personal work. Bravo, J.K.!
Artist Bio
J. K. Lavin is an American artist whose photographic practice considers memory, self-portraiture and the measurement of time. She was selected as a Critical Mass Finalist in 2020 and also as a Fresh finalist by Klompching Gallery in 2019. Her solo exhibitions include The Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA and Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA. Lavin’s work has been in numerous juried exhibitions across the US and exhibited in Europe. Her photographs have been published in various on-line and print magazines including The Boston Globe, Diffusion, Analog Forever, Lenscratch, Los Angeles Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, All About Photo.com and Dodho. She is based in Venice, CA.
Author Bio
Diana Nicholette Jeon is an award-winning artist based in Honolulu, HI, who works primarily with lens-based media. Her work has been seen both internationally and nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Jeon holds an MFA from UMBC.