Works by two photographers are woven together in Anthony Greaney’s new exhibition, elegantly finding the point where two practices meet.
“Thinking Paw” features Jenna Westra and Josh Brand, New Yorkers who happen to have gotten engaged around the time the show was installed.
While Westra and Brand still make their own solo photographs, the two have been creating collaborative images since 2021. Happy coincidences define most. Each comes out of experiments in the darkroom, where they layer objects on top of the film negatives and occasionally photograms to create works that can never be truly repeated. The results are enigmatic and stunning.
Westra stages and plans most of her photographs, while Brand surrenders to the images and does his manipulation after the fact. Yet both artist’s work feels choreographed and cinematic, almost like a dance film.
“Leah and Amelia Rotating” is a highlight, showing Westra’s keen eye and her ability to choreograph precisely, then abstract, the bodies of the models she works with. Meanwhile, Westra is Brand’s own model. In Brand’s “Jenna, Window, Hallway, Dancer,” a tender grouping of four images, we see views of Westra’s hair but never her face.
That camera-shy quality – Westra’s urge to take the focus off herself while making images and even while posing – betrays a curiosity that’s endearing and deeply human.
“Thinking Paw” by Jenna Westra and Josh Brand runs through May 17 at Anthony Greaney, 438 Somerville Ave., Ward 2, Somerville. Saturdays and Sundays noon to 6 p.m.
Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to editor@cambridgeday.com with the subject line “Behold.”
The feature image on this post is of “Lua with Two Circles,” a work by Jenna Westra.
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