Laura Jane Petelko: One of Canada’s Rising Photographers Uses Her Lens to Blur Definitions and Bring Emotion to the Forefront
When it comes to her work, Laura Jane Petelko seeks to create space for her audiences’ emotional experience. This Canadian-based photographer, whose works now hang in world-renowned galleries as well as in the homes of devoted private collectors, is determined to draw people away from technological distractions and into a more intimate relationship with her imagery. Her most recent series, MA, featuring famed dancers, actors and choreographers, invites viewers to pause, reflect and regenerate – in their own way, of course.
A self-taught artist, Petelko, who knew from a young age that she wanted to be in the arts, went on her own path, reminiscent of her latest works. “I had a fairly tumultuous childhood where I wasn’t given the support to thrive. I was, however, lucky enough to have a few artists and music lovers to inspire me when I was really young. They introduced me to art forms that explored emotional landscapes.” These were the kinds of pieces that inspired her most and which she would later set out to create. “I had intended to go to art school here in Toronto, but my family life really fell apart at this time, so I had to make the tough decision to go into the work force as a young person and build my life from the ground up. I still knew that I wanted to be an artist but wasn’t sure how I was going to get there. I worked some tough jobs to save money for the basics and do any schooling that I could. I just always felt pretty lucky to have well-educated and well-versed mentors around me.”
Despite those early setbacks, this dedicated artist continued to devour all things music and art- related, and eventually began working at a record store in her spare time. It was here that she started to photograph bands. With so many artist friends, Laura Jane recognized the opportunity to make a connection with a fine art production house. She soon found herself volunteering for fine artists based out of Los Angeles where she discovered her true passion: photography.
Laura Jane might have started in the background printing exhibitions for artists like Harmony Korine amongst other recognizable names out of the West Coast, but it wasn’t long before she was the one at the forefront and developing her own solo show. “These were real artists and here I was producing everything in the darkroom darkroom day in and day out. I was working in production and learning firsthand how it all comes together. I was deep into the mechanics of the whole thing. I soon realized that I could do this for myself as well – before that it just felt like more of a faraway dream, I suppose.”
It was when she was entrenched in the backend of things that Laura Jane understood that there was a lot going on behind all the glitz and glamour of an art gallery. “It really takes a village! You need a team of producers and technicians to make something happen.” As she continued working with other artists, many of whom were on the academic side of things, this soon-to-be star photographer also concluded that she wanted her work to come from a place of exploring ideas. “The medium of photography in a deconstructed way which makes it possible to explore ideas that are more ambiguous and open. Photography captures time and place, but I am most interested in work that aims to broaden our senses or that speaks to our intellectual mind rather than getting caught up in details. To me, that’s the very nature of photography. My greatest goal is to create work that connects with people’s inner world in the same way that art and music has done for me over all these years, in a mostly poetic way.”
Laura Jane attributes her attraction to abstraction to an earlier time in her life and career when she was diagnosed with an eye condition that required intense treatment for a couple of years. This
condition led her to see things, including her work, in a completely different light. This greater interest in abstraction subsequently changed her relationship to photography. “Removing details can leave room for the viewer to enter into a more emotional space within the image and be able to play in their own imagination,” she explains. “Much like a song, having less details gives us the chance to have our own interpretations.”
Through her latest collection featuring well-known artists, including actors and dancers from the renowned National Ballet of Canada, Laura Jane is taking her ideals to higher – and more enlightened heights. This current body of work entitled MA, is a Japanese term which is based on the absent spaces in art and architecture that give form to an object. This concept of negative space relates to all aspects of life. The interval created, whether in the mind or the physical realm, is a regenerative pause.
“This is such an incredible metaphor for the time we’ve been living in,” explains Laura Jane. It was through this personal work that she was able to go back to abstraction. Let’s just say that getting the opportunity to work with such artists as choreographer and contemporary dancer Andrea Nann, actor Chloe Rose, dancer Adelaide Sadler, and National Ballet of Canada dancer Connor Hamilton, first soloist Calley Skalnik and principal dancer Siphe November, was one very shining silver lining of the pandemic. Laura Jane’s artistic perspective can be seen through these works where the dancers, impressionistic and solitary, become forms traced in space.
“Everything just came together. It was a real gift to be able to work with collaborators of such great distinction. I might not have had access to any of this at any other time but was able to collaborate during this pause when the ballet company was on hiatus. The images are dark and magnetic, and the dancers’ own movements make their identities less clear. There’s this incredible kind of exchange and it was such a beautiful experience to work with them and bring the series into the world.”
With an opening in Toronto and representation in galleries throughout the US, including Cavalier Galleries which has locations in New York, Palm Beach and Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as in Virgil Catherine Gallery in Chicago, Laura Jane is most excited to share these special pieces with both old and new collectors.
“I think that my work tends to resonate with people more on an emotional level. It’s beautiful to see how work moves through the world, and I feel like I have the most wonderful collectors. Creating work that is then able to connect with people feels great. The connection is not just transactional, it feels like a bond. It’s the beauty of that which keeps me going to the next one.”
Many of her followers are also huge fans of her previous works including Soft Stories. Featuring flawed creatures portrait-style in an almost odd and irreverent way against natural landscapes, the project alluded to a sort of poetry about our disconnection with nature. According to Laura Jane, although the images themselves are not blurred, the definitions were blurred. “It’s fun to give permission to not have all the answers and move into something more poetically rather than academically or technically, etc.”
Endless Gone is another thought-provoking series where endless landscapes trigger endless questions from admirers who often ask where everything was taken and how it was shot. Yet again, it is this removal of everything but the feeling the pieces provoke which allows the viewer to retreat into their own interpretations. “It’s about removing information in an age where we are exhausted with so much content and technology.”
As can be seen with her most celebrated works, especially MA, more pause can indeed mean more meaning – in whatever way that means for you.
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