Another artist I’ve been really fascinated with over the last year has been Juno Calypso. I first heard her on the Ben Smith podcast (link below). After hearing her talk about her project ‘ The Honey Moon’ I went and looked at the work and I was drawn in straight away. I feel like she has kind of carried on and built on where Cindy Sherman had started. Born out of a childhood hobby and dressing up and taking images with family cameras and also a gameboy camera.

- https://bensmithphoto.com/asmallvoice/juno-calypso

I love how she includes comedy into her work and felt that photography has been lacking it. the ‘Honeymoon’ project she travelled across America posing as a travel writer and took self portraits with themes of feminism and

https://junocalypso.bigcartel.com/product/what-to-do-with-a-million-years

When she was asked why she produces the work that she does she she replied “ I wanted to make a basic visual pun” and it was her criticism of the fashion industry and some other issues women go through from peer pressure from feeling pressured to look a certian way with beauty routines.

I think it’s a really interesting way to approach a topic that and criticise it and using comedy. I can’t really empathise with the femminine issues but her way of criticising things has been shaped a lot by her anti authorities attitude which is pretty similar to the punk rock scene. I can empathise with her growing up anecdotes of bunking off school and being ( hopefully aware) but slightly arrogant in previous years with producing work and not caring for negative feedback. In her self portrait work she uses an alias and alter Ego ‘ Joyce” and I think thats really interesting. I have been working with self portraiture as well and not thinking too much about it with a bit of an ‘automatic’ approach involving listening to music. I’ve not really thought to much about it but I feel like the music and the themes in the song at the time direct it a lot, and when i collect them together I realise that they seem to share a melancholy and sadness but always with a hope.

I can’t really articulate with words but I do feel it is a reflection of my generation and the times that we live in. It’s an acknowledgement that things are shit for us as well as a feeling of hopelessness but always with a glimmer of hope.

I’m feeling quite overwhelmed with the placement of the work as its evolved into something much larger than when it started. I’m mixing self portraiture, portraiture and reportage images with text.

I am lucky to have had some peer reviews that have been helpful but also made me question a lot of my practice with certain people telling me to go back to my roots more. I definitely want to include more self portraiture into my practice but I need to sit on these feelings on it for a bit.

from https://junocalypso.bigcartel.com/product/what-to-do-with-a-million-years

Like Calypso I use bigcartel to sell my zine and some prints.

MY ZINE COVER DEVELOPMENT BELOW-