Jocelyn Carlin: To Be : Portraits

Guided by the rich history of photography, Jocelyn Carlin moves with ease from reportage to art projects. Here within the strictures of a still frame she strives to capture the intangible, simple human life.

The process of darkroom portraiture was directly inspired by Len Lye's photograms. It's a re-discovery of the craft of photography revelling in the mysteries of a seemingly archaic darkroom, combining technique with observation, and pairing artistic intent with uncertainty of outcome. These portraits are a new way of seeing ourselves but being reminiscent of the C.18th silhouette, they are anchored in the past.

"The immensely popular shadow tracings were a cheap quick method of recording a person's profile." - Bill Jay on Photography, From Magic to Mimesis.

More than a simple record of a human profile, like the self, they are subtle and complex, layered, textured, flawed and beautiful.

The body of work, To Be : Portraits, is the newest addition to the greater project, Likeness, that grew from the objectivity of reportage, and evolved into something else - less objective, but more essential to the concerns of the human-life-teller.

Jocelyn Carlin is based in Auckland in her building that was designed for living and working and has developed it into a communal rental studio. Her great interest however is in features photojournalism and she has spent more than the last ten years working on humanitarian and environmental issues in the Pacific region.

Jocelyn is a willing participant in exhibition projects including the photograms series To Be : Portraits. She has in her studio one of the few remaining high-end black & white darkrooms in which the photograms were made. Completely at home with digital technology Jocelyn scans the A3 print originals and any film projects shot to make digital art prints.