Not too long ago, we shared photographs by Jordanna Kalman from her series Sometimes, depicting figures blending into their surroundings, evaporating almost completely. Following this work was the sudden death of Kalman’s mother which caused expected changes within her practice. The weight and significance of the erasure process began to emote in ways that gave new meaning to Kalman.  Invisible is a series of self portraits providing physicality to grief in the absence of presence.

Jordanna Kalman lives and works in NY with her husband and two young daughters. Her work explores loneliness, femininity and individuality. She received her MA in photography from the London College of Communication and her BFA in photography from Purchase College. Jordanna has had her work shown nationally, internationally and online and has exhibited most recently at Rubber Factory in NYC with a solo show of her ser​ies ​Invisible. She runs the online photography gallery Streit House Space and the instagram residency program Streit Lab. She does not remember what sleep feels like.

Invisible

My work deals with independence, loneliness and femininity. I have two different series that partially remove the subject from the frame, one is about memory and one absence. I was working on the series that deals with memory when my mother died very suddenly. I found myself shifting gears and moving into an alternate series, removing the subject with a different motivation; feeling absent from the world. The figures removed represent myself, unable to be present because of grief but also as a symbol of the work I’ve done that my mother will never see. As I was moving forward through the grieving process I only removed heads, representing myself as physically present but still emotionally absent.