Artist Feature: Jen Gotch

Jen Gotch takes a damn good photo.
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I love that this set of images capture the essence of Paris without being cliché. What makes Paris so interesting is not really the big monuments, but the little things that Paris is composed of, that make up the city's aesthetic. The way the little round tables and café chairs stand in repetition, how the iron balustrade frames the view from tall windows, and how gritty, urban, and underground the metro is. It's a mix of visuals and feelings, and that's what I love about Paris.



The one below, taken in the Louvre, is immediately recognizable to a viewer who is even remotely familiar with images of Paris; It's the ancient Greek statue called "Winged Victory" that is placed at the axis of a massive room of marble staircases. It's one of the most grand areas of the museum, but the extreme blur makes the photograph unique. The height of the ceiling and buzzing of tourists is conveyed, but through the lens of memory or maybe even "tourist-fatigue" (Seriously, the Louvre is the most exhausting site in Paris).







And last but not least, perhaps my favorite of her Paris set, the Polaroid below. Any depiction of Paris is so easily revered as something so magical and precious. We consume these things up like we're starving, and want to hold on to them with gentle hands as to not damage their beauty. Why is it that anything Parisian becomes a sacred object? This polaroid, at first, gives you that butterfly feeling, because firstly, it's a Polaroid (nostalgia), and secondly, it was taken in Paris. But when you see that absolutely nothing is pictured, you realize that maybe the object itself has less value because of this.

All images of Paris are the same as this Polaroid - actually meaningless and arbitrary material, around which we construct our ideas of Romance and Beauty. It's all in our heads.



She has plenty of other photo sets, not just of Paris. Check out her sites:

Flickr
Website


If you Pin any of these images, make sure her name is in the description!

What catches your attention in these photos the most?



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