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Artist statement
 

Jane Ross: Lost and Found

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Brompton Cemetery – one of London’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ Victorian garden cemeteries – is a place of relaxation, a haven for wildlife and an inspiration for writers and artists. Many of the graves are unmarked, decaying and their inscriptions worn away. The experimental, multilayered photos in the series Lost and Found imagine the traces of the lives of women and girls resting there, who are described in gravestone epitaphs simply as ‘mother’, ‘wife’ , ‘sister’ or ‘daughter’.  While the lives of men are commemorated on gravestones with tales of high office, accomplishments and adventure, the lives of their female relatives remain largely unrecorded, hidden and unknown. Their lives and experiences are lost but in a sense these are found -- and reclaimed -- in these imagined portraits.

 

These photographs were made during successive lockdowns in London in 2020 and 2021, during which the green spaces of Brompton Cemetery provided solace and also inspired meditation on how the past informs the present. They were made using a combination of vintage Victorian and Edwardian cabinet cards of unidentified women, digital and analogue photography, and an iPhone camera.

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Biography

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Jane Ross has worked for over 25 years as a communications specialist  - writer, editor, photographer - for UN and development agencies in Europe, Africa and Latin America. Now London-based, she works full-time in corporate communications, but since 2013 has devoted most of her free time on photography and studying photographic history.

 

She holds a Masters degree in History of Art (University of Aberdeen, 1982), a Masters degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography (London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, 2013-2015), and a Masters in Arts and Cultural Enterprise (Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, 2020-2021). Her dissertation focused on participation and participatory practices in documentary photography in the UK.

 

Her work has been shown in group shows in Europe and USA, including: Continuum, London College of Communication (University of the Arts, London), May 2015; Photofusion Members Show, Photofusion, London, January 2018; Shutterhub Exhibition-Photo East London, Truman's Brewery, London, October 2018; London Independent Photography LIP 30th Annual Exhibition, Espacio Gallery, London, October 2018; Shutterhub Open, Amsterdam, Netherlands, January 2019; Sui Generis- The Possibilities of a House, Plas Bodfa, Llangoled, Wales, April 2019; 36 Exposures, Fringe Arts Festival Bath (FAB), Bath, May-June 2019; Time to Think, Festival Pil'Ours, St. Gilles Croix de Vie, France, July-August 2019; London Independent Photography LIP 31st Annual Exhibition, Espacio Gallery, London, October 2019; Stories, PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, April 2020; Urban, PH21/Valid World Hall Gallery, Barcelona, Spain, August 2020; Shutterhub Everyday Delight, Abbey Place, Thorney, Peterborough, UK, August-September 2020; Monochrome, PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, August-September 2020; Art of Photography, PH21/Centro Sperimentale di Fotografia, Rome, Italy, October 2020; Lockdown Chronicles, London Independent Photography (LIP), October 2020; Stories: Narrative Photography, PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, May 2021; Monochrome, PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, June 2021; Curators Choice, ProArts, New Jersey, USA, June 2021; London Independent 

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To find out more about Jane Ross, click here:

Website: https://janeross.photoshelter.com/index

Instagram: janeross15

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Please return in a few days to read the critical reviews about the exhibition and to view and order the exhibition catalogue.

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