Brooklynn Jacobs
Brooklyn Standing in Park, collaborative portrait
Brooklyn stands in the center of a grassy park with plants and trees in the background. She has one leg placed in front of the other, she smiles slightly with her hands clasped in front of her showing the long cable release.
Artist Statement:
In Pupa, I examine the quiet moments that occur in the transitional periods of life, where there is nothing to do but explore, dream, and wander the places you currently inhabit until a new phase of life presents itself. This project directly explores my own unplanned transition between an old life and a new one. Having accepted that there was nothing left for me to do but wait and experience, I decided to document the world around me, as it served as a chrysalis for my transformation. I challenged myself to capture things as they are – not how they could be. I captured buildings, streets, and animals I had lived around for years. Through this practice of presence, I realized how they had changed, how my relationship to them had shifted, and that just as I had witnessed my environment and the things within it, these things had witnessed me in return. In that moment, I learned that my own metamorphosis had never been one that occurred alone, but in tandem. Pupa is a transition, frozen in time, both the moment before inspiration occurs and a revelation of its own.
PUPA
Nestled in fluffed blankets, a journal, a book, pens, and three tarot cards—the Daughter of Wands, The Star, and the Son of Coins—are arranged in the center. The photo has a distorted, washed-out appearance.
A boy and his dog are depicted in the center of the photograph. The boy plays on his imitation tractor, paying little attention to the world around him, while his dog looks around, alert. On the right border is an additional play car, and on the left, the partially cut-off foot of an adult.
The photograph looks down a city street toward Iowa’s capitol building, with sunbeams cutting through the image from the top of the photograph. The building is partially obscured by a line of storefronts and trees in front of it. A lone person stands silhouetted in the center of the image, tiny in comparison to the building beyond them.
A Private Parking sign peeks out through the trees, only partially visible through the foliage of the tree-lined street in front ot it. In the left foreground of the image is the street corner and intersection cutting through the bottom of the frame.
The black and white image depicts several painted bricks, arranged in stacks. Not all of the designs of the bricks are visible except for three with bold messages: “Boys and girls can all be queens” with a crown drawn between the words; “The horrors persist and so do I” with leaves drawn around the message; and the trans flag with the message “Trans people belong in IA”.
A mural on the side of a building peeks from between trees on the street in front of it. The mural depicts Frida Kahlo with a gentle gaze, accompanied by blooming flowers.
A cat sits in silhouette against a smudged window pane, facing the camera. The cat is mostly in shadow except for the edges of its angular face, whiskers, and body. In the background beyond the window is a blurred street corner.
Tyler, an African-American man, drives with an extremely focused expression on the road ahead of him. The underside of an overpass bridge is visible in the background.
Goose, the dog featured previously looks out a glass storm door, looking concerned. In the reflection of the storm door is a silhouette of an adult man and a tall, mature tree.
A mural is shown on the side of a brick building. The painting depicts a series of daisies painted whimsically with sigils in their center on some, and silly faces on others. On the left of the frame boldly stands a solid black door.
The image looks down a hall and through a screen door, the light from outside softly illuminating a door on the left of the frame. Beyond the screen door exists a long sidewalk leading away from the home.
A long sidewalk is shown leading down a commercial street past two buildings. The first is a painted-white brick building with abstract, artful designs on its facade. Next to it stands a much darker, subdued building.
Large, painted letters spelling "LOVE" are propped against a chain-link fence and a building where wild foliage grows. On the upper left-hand of the frame and the side of the building reads a sign: "Worth the 1996-year wait. Now available in Iowa."