Paige Young

Paige Young is a conceptual analogue photographer, installation and video artist who has exhibited across the United States. Recent exhibitions include venues such as the Sedona Arts Center in Arizona, Praxis Photo Arts Center in Minneapolis, Padnos Gallery at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, and Covet Gallery in Oceanside, California. Paige’s awards include multiple scholarships throughout her academic career from Kendall College of Art & Design in Grand Rapids, Grand Valley State University in Michigan, as well as Michigan College. She is also a writer who has written essays such as The New Super Woman: The Representation of Female Bodybuilding in Mass Media and Feminist Theory and Advertisements.

Shooting with 35mm, 120mm and DSLR, Paige’s most recent works tend to be analogue photography and format labwork. Her works deal with concepts such as cherishing reflective memory as well as interpretations of self through body image. Paige’s most recent works from the series These Died with You document photographs of her family members from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century. She takes these historic photographs, turns them into negatives, and then assembles them in the lab to create photographic montages of fleeting moments and memory. As a result, she creates art which has a deep connection to her personal history and sense of identity. 

Other similar conceptual series such as Moments I’ll Remember, Memories You Forget contains documentary photography of her grandparents. She not only documents her grandparents by taking pictures of them, but also representations of their character by depictions of their home interior, heirlooms, antiques as well as furniture. As if these ghostly interiors contain an omniscient foreshadowing of illness through aged texture of objects and interior through literal depictions and through the grainy process of analogue photography. Aesthetically, the photographs reveal the delicate measure of time and how our relatives along with representations of them not only serve as a symbol of self-identity but also as works of documentative art. In addition, Paige’s installations and video work also deal with conceptual approaches regarding shaming of body fat. She reflects a sense of guilt both self-induced and reflecting judgements by society, creating clever social commentary on the value of self esteem regardless of physical appearance. 

Things you Cherished (pictured above) is a ghostly photograph conveying a variety of heirlooms and antiques representing Paige’s grandparents. The ominous pink flowers become accentuated through the magenta streak flare on the side from the lab process, invoking an apparition-like essence. In the distance, we may see a cabinet and jewelry box blurred out by the depth of field and in focus within the central composition are fine pieces of valuable earrings. Paige’s piece could be described as an improvised still life conveying conceptual approaches instead of just depicting aesthetic inclinations. 

Paige Young as a photographer reveals a sense of purpose to image-making through the documentation of time and reflective memory on personal history. Her works remind us of the fragility of life, family ties as well as having the viewer grasp at the sands of time slipping through our fingertips. Paige Young’s art reveals a sense of urgency to respect oneself both in physical form and through the mind of our ancestral and historical roots within our community through symbolic representations and analogue processes.

https://paigekyoung.com