Sal Taylor Kydd: Janus Rising

Sal Taylor Kydd: Janus Rising by Aline SmithsonJanuary 31, 2019

©Sal Taylor Kydd, Anne in the Window

“It is a curious emotion, this certain homesickness I have in mind… It is no simple longing for the home town or country of our birth. The emotion is Janus-faced: we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.”- Carson McCullers

Photographic artist Sal Taylor Kydd creates quietly beautiful, personal, and metaphorical images, born from nature and family and things over looked. “My work draws strongly on the landscape, focusing on my home, family and myself in conversation with the natural world. I am often attracted to the objects and artifacts that we surround ourselves with, as memory-memory-laden emblems of our history and signifiers of the passing of time; how a sense of place can be embedded with personal history.”

Her new series, Janus Rising, considers her changing identity as a mother and artist as she moves towards middle-age. The series will open in exhibition at Gallery 169 in Santa Monica, CA from February 2nd -March 3rd, 2019 with an Artist Reception on Feb 2, 5-8pm. The work will feature both alternative and contemporary photographic processes and in addition to her photographic efforts, Sal is also a bookmaker and will have a number of her books available for sale at the exhibition.

“I focus on the photographic object, the print, or the artist book, as a keepsake of my experience in the world. It provides me in a very tangible and tactile way of recording the discoveries and holding on to the memories that I am trying to preserve. Photographing gives me a way to capture my impressions and writing and making books lets me distill and reexamine that experience.”

A selection of her books:

©Sal Taylor Kydd, Keepsakes book cover

©Sal Taylor Kydd, Keepsakes book presentation

©Sal Taylor Kydd, The Call book cover

©Sal Taylor Kydd, spread from The Call

©Sal Taylor Kydd, Just When I Thought I Had You, book cover

©Sal Taylor Kydd, spread from Just When I Thought I Had You

©Sal Taylor Kydd, Spread from Just When I Thought I Had You

Originally from the UK, photographer and artist Sal Taylor Kydd earned her BA in Modern Languages from Manchester University in the UK and has an MFA in Photography from Maine Media College. Her fine art photographs have been exhibited throughout the country and internationally, including Barcelona, Portland, Maine, Boston and Los Angeles.

Sal is also a writer and poet, and has self-published a number of books combining her poetry with her photographs. Her books are in numerous private and museum collections throughout the country including The Getty Museum and in the Maine Women Writer’s Collection at the University of New England. Sal’s latest artist book is The Call, is a hand-made letterpress artist book and her book of poems and photographs, Just When I Thought I Had You, is now in its second edition. Sal’s books are represented by Patricia Juvelis Inc and are also available through Vamp and Tramp booksellers.

Sal and her family reside in Rockport, Maine where she is on the board of Maine Media Workshops and College.

©Sal Taylor Kydd, A Thing to Behold

janus rising
March 2018

The Roman God Janus is frequently depicted with two faces, one looking forward to the future and one back to the past. In this work I explore that duality, as my awareness begins to focus on getting older and finding myself at a point of transition and shift. As women we inhabit different roles throughout our lives, worker, spouse, mother, sister, friend. With Janus Rising, I consider a different future and identity as my role as a mother starts to shift. Each image is an exploration of time’s passing, as I explore the interplay between fragility and strength and the resilience of self.