cam.contemporarie presents, a lot to be grateful for, a solo exhibition of new work by Jazmine. a lot to be grateful for reads as a visual journal on 35mm chronicling cycles and the foundations of everyday life through a series of small intuitive photo constructions sourced from a new accordion book and set of embroidered polaroids with accompanying text.
“You remember when you lost your first long term friend?”
“I kinda remember this day…maybe…sorta.”
Jazmine. pens her innermost thoughts on the white edges of a polaroid. Her approach to photo collage straddles the line of nostalgia, like fading fragments of memory, pieced together in a diagraphic form. As a part of Jazmine.'s journaling practices, the exhibition title, and process comes from the daily meditations of writing what she is grateful for. This intimate snapshot includes images of nature, road trips, self portraits and musings from Chicago, Atlanta, and Arizona documented during the pandemic that are being shown for the first time.
In this series of photos, Jazmine. attempts to create a portrait indirectly — without using the full likeness of friends, family, and loved ones, and instead embellishes the figure with colorful threads, or depicts a celebratory moment through an image of cupcakes with icing, or the shadow of a thought, channelling the photographic portrait practices of black and white photographer, Lee Freilander, or the absence or obscurity of a being felt, but not immediately seen like that of Ana Mendieta. These spliced photographs create an intimate and soft gaze into the everyday life of Jazmine., during a time when the every day stood still, yet was moving in ways that were a constant reminder of gratitude.