Inspired by the magical textures created in my past work by the use of water imagery, I’ve decided to move further in that direction. Specifically, I’m interested in creating a multi-disciplinary piece revolving around jellyfish. My current plan is to combine Super 8 film footage of live jellyfish with an installation element and a dance performance. I also plan to create images using my current technique of recomposing elements from my photographs, resulting in magical and semi-abstract explorations of the jellyfish and their underwater world.
In my most recent collection, I explore landscapes closer to home, using photographs from many trips to Algonquin Park as well as two road trips out to the Maritime provinces. By combining iconic Canadian landscapes elements with abstract patterns and colours found in nature, I aim to create vast landscapes with magical skies – images that feel at once very familiar and very mysterious. Once I’ve collected many images, I extract elements from various photographs and recompose them into imaginary new landscapes. By combining familiar elements (such as a silhouette of a tree) with unexpected ones (such as using an image of water where the sky should be), I create fantasy landscapes. This allows the viewer to play, and to use their imagination to complete the story for themselves. Sometimes the stories they see are based on current events, or their own memories and past experiences. Sometimes the viewer just lets their imagination roam.
~~~
Jessica Lin is a Toronto-based freelance photographer and artist with a love of travel and adventure. After receiving her diploma in photography from Fanshawe College, she spent the next few years learning everything she could about lighting and digital retouching in a large commercial studio environment. It was educational, but not inspiring. While travelling in France in 2008, Jessica discovered her creative passion for photographing new and different places. Trips to Ireland, England, Scotland, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Japan and the southern U.S. have allowed her to build up a library of images capturing these other worlds. Years of using Photoshop for her clients now pay off as Jessica uses those skills to turn her images into surreal layers, and turn places into fantasies. She created her first collection in 2012 using images from her trip to France.