OBJECTS OF REVERIE

Jo Ann Callis is one of America’s great artists and photographers, and yet outside of certain circles or professorial presentations in ivy league photo classes, you don’t hear a much about her (or from her for that matter). Aside from the stray article here or there, most of which amount to soundbites, there is precious little to be found beyond the biographical broad strokes, standard Wikipedia stuff.

Her own website, charmingly out of date, offers not much beyond a CV, with images collected around categorized tags like ‘Dogs’, ‘Babies’, ‘Early Color’ or ‘Cheap Thrills.’ Taken together they begin to trace the outline of a body of work, but really don’t capture the qualities of her artistic identity or unsettlingly beautiful oeuvre. Jo ann callis ↗

Drawing comparisons to David Lynch and William Eggleston, JAC saw (and still sees) the emotional potential in color, using it to great effect in uneasy scenes of domestic surrealism. ‘I like sour colors — beautiful, but a little bit off. That’s still the palette I like.’ she said in a 2023 interview with CNN.

In the below photo, Woman with Wet Hair, nothing was set ablaze or suspended in motion, instead mounting mystery through the spartan setting and the odd projection of light into an ostensibly private space, the subject faced away and charged with 180º of potential energy.