Polaroid Emulsion Lifts

Genetics.

My paternal grandmother passed away when I was five months old. My entire life I have heard stories about her life, about who she was, what she was like, etc. But, it unfortunately still left me what she might be and might have been if she had survived. My memory of her is zero, not sure what her voice sounded like or what her handwriting was even like. While home for the holidays, I was visiting with my grandfather and we were going through old photographs. I took some of them, scanned them in and have been slowly retouching out the dust, age, and color fades. In the process, I found this one of my grandmother when she was about 30 (image on the left). The image on the right (taken by my good friend Ariana Gomez http://arianagomez.com/ ) is of me just after my 25th birthday. I think its amazing how our poses are almost the same, and although I am in Manhattan in my shot, and she is on vacation in upstate New York, the settings are similar as well. Beyond that, this was the first time in my life that I see how much I look like her. We have the same shaped neck and shoulders, same hair line/part, eyebrows, and lips. So, in a way, even though I have never known her, I am carrying her legacy on. I hope I am doing a good enough job.

{Credits for photo on right:  Ariana Gomez http://arianagomez.com  and make sure you also check out her blog, where she posts a daily photo that she has taken. Not only is she one of my personal best friends and winner of favorite people awards, she is also a phenomenal artist http://arianagomez.tumblr.com/ }

THIS week in polaroids!

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York

Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York

Route 1, New Jersey

Manhattan, New York

Atlantic Terminal, Brookly, New York

Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, New York

Prospect Park Q Train Station, Brooklyn, New York

This week in polaroids!

Happy Accidents Brooklyn, Bed Stuy

Double Exposures Bushwick, Brooklyn

Studio, Bushwisk, Brooklyn

Sunrise Brooklyn, New York

dirty windows bushwick, brooklyn

manhattan, new york

the met 

philidelphia, pa

trash, bed stuy, brooklyn

cool. manhattan, new york

Fuerza Bruta dancers manhattan, new york

Dancer, Fuerza Bruta Manhattan, ny

My bed, bed stuy, brooklyn

times sq, manhattan

The Last 2 Weeks in Polaroids

With Fuji discontinuing their black and white 3000b film, I finished of it, what I had (for now) and decided that instead of mourning it. I should play more with the color. Teach myself how to push it, see what happens with the double exposures, etc. Because, truth be told, their black and white was so easy to work with, I didn't even see a point in trying with the color. But, after a good week or so, of using it a lot... I don't hate it, but I'm also not completely sold yet. Here's the best of the best:

Financial District at night.

double exposure, inside a subway station

construction site, times sq

top of the stairwell at the photostudio. Bushwick, Brooklyn

ice cream, December 1. 

suburban self portrait at the mall

Double exposure. map and buildings, times sq

tortilla factory bushwick, brooklyn

double exposure. Windows bushwick, brooklyn

window, bed stuy, brooklyn

Fraylie outside of home depot bed stuy, brooklyn

street art, brooklyn

Two cool dogs, bed stuy, brooklyn

neon sign at night, LES, manhattan

street art, bed stuy, brooklyn

From the Archives

Tonight I went through and cleaned up an old hard drive. I found some photographs that I, One, never retouched, and two, completely forgot about... probably because at the time I felt they weren't the "final" image or just got lazy with the editing. Either way, I have found them, and it was interesting to see them and think about how my style of photography (and art in general) has changed since.

Self Portrait, m.c. escher style.

Apart of my ever changing Surreal project. Poor little girl born with an egghead.

I literally have 7000 images of the lights from the RIT fourth floor studios. This was studio 3.

Highspeed photography class -- the Ballistic photography project.

I honestly have no idea what this photograph was for. But I remember it involving Andrew David Hazey and a fire in the ceiling of the photo tech lab...

This week in Polaroids

Emailer

This is a creative editorial I did for macys.com a few months back, and recently was displayed in one of their holiday emails!

This week in Polaroid format

Instantly Instant!

My polaroid project is live on the site! I've been shooting Polaroids for the last 7 years, but since finding my grandfather's Polaroid 220 Land-camera, it became my main camera. For me, it started out as a fun way to get to shoot film, but turned into something else. A new way to look at my everyday surroundings; New York City, beaches, where I grew up, etc. I experimented with double/triple exposures, layering images, combining projects through drawing/painting on the images. I'm very proud of this project, and I can't wait to push it even further. 

http://www.jessdavisphoto.com/polaroids/

New Section on website!!

Very excited to announce that very soon there will be a new personal project section on my site called Polaroids, once it's fully up I will have the artists statement here, but for now here is a quick taste.