‘My subjects feel special – most of the time’
Judith Joy Ross Photographs 1978–2015 is an illuminating retrospective that explores the life and career of a revered American photographer, illustrated by two hundred of her images, many never before seen or published.
“I began doing that with the Eurana Park pictures,” she elaborates. “Some, like the three little girls with popsicles, are printed brown because they are full of joy. Others, mainly of the older kids, are printed grey because I could sense they already had the basic existential issues that adults have. That series has an awareness that life is going to be hard. Period. For me, the greyness is our mortality. I would not have said that back then, but I found myself saying it to myself yesterday when I was thinking about the pictures.”
The work of Judith Joy Ross, American photographer born 1946, marks a watershed in the lineage of the photographic portrait. Her pictures—unpretentious, quietly penetrating, startling in their transparency—consistently achieve the capacity to glimpse the past, present, and perhaps even the future of the individuals who stand before her lens.
Sean O’Hagan Article on The Guardian
