Natalie Jenks
Artist Statement
This project has taken shape over the past year and a half, encapsulating a time when I moved from Chicago to Portland, and the adjustment period that came afterward. My post-grad experience happened to collide with the pandemic, cutting away any expectations that I had prior to these incidents. My work shifted inward, and I began to document what was close and tangible to me in order to keep myself together. What I was left with was a soft and constant intimacy with my partner, the subtle shifts in seasons as time seemed to disappear without warning, and the dramatic changes my mental health went through during this time period. This project aims to pass the days while trying to make sense of them. Photography provides the power of capturing a moment in its purest form. I wrangle that power and place my negatives in order to understand how my day went: how I loved that day, how I cried that day, how the sun was there anyway and how everything always ends in bed. There is something more I am trying to grasp at to understand time now, and this is the evidence I have gathered towards a hypothesis. This is what the sun felt like in August. This is what the ground smelled like when the fruit fell from the trees to sit in the heat and smash underfoot. This is what my skin felt like, what their skin felt like when we were 22 and 23. This is what it feels like to keep trying and keep getting a little better each time. This is what an hour feels like when you’re angry with me. Or in love with me. Or laughing with me. Time moves around and around and I can never catch it. This is what it looks like when I try anyway.
Natalie Jenks | Portland, OR