by Helen Jones 

On View

September 13 - September 17. 2022

More About To light and then return

To light and then return is an examination of the things we carry with us, both emotionally and physically, across lands from place to place. Taking its name from a short poem, almost a fragment, written on the back of an envelope by Emily Dickinson, this work marvels at the magic and mistakes of photography, meditates on loss, and places value on the everyday sediments of our lives.

Sublime large-format landscapes and still lifes of teeth and ashes share space with washed-out snapshots and aged ephemera, words of wisdom, shopping lists, and favorite poems copied by hand—items inherited when the artist's parents passed. These combinations make space for new meanings; a piece of carbon paper becomes the night sky, two awkwardly positioned rocks are bodies supporting one another, and light flares and glares become spirits populating the images.

About Helen Jones 

Helen Jones holds an MFA from the University of Texas, Austin, and a BFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art. She spent the intervening years in Oregon, where she established Pine Island Press, a small press specializing in art and photography zines, including the publication Incandescent, which has just released its 20th issue. Helen's work explores interactions between people, places, and landscapes. Her aesthetic is one of things built up unintentionally and of imprints left behind. Her work has been featured online on sites such as Ain't—Bad, Nowhere Diary, Lenscratch, F-stop Magazine, and Float Magazine; and in print in Subjectively, Objective's Monthly Monograph Magazine. She has exhibited in group shows at the Visual Art Center (Austin, Texas), Vermont Center for Photography (Brattleboro, Vermont), UnSmoke Systems (Braddock, Pennsylvania), and was included in the Pacific Northwest Photography Viewing Drawers at Blue Sky Gallery (Portland, Oregon).