Through My Own Eyes

Through My Own Eyes

black & white film photography by Jaime Sweany

Opening Reception:

First Friday Gallery Walk

September 4, 5-8pm

Juniper Art Gallery has not featured photography before, but Owner, Jaime Sweany, has often been asked if she is an artist and "Do you have any work here?" As some of you know, she's had photographs hanging in the gallery's restroom, and that's often gotten a giggle from the inquiring folk.

But seriously, before being a gallerist, Sweany was an avid photographer, concentrating mostly on portraiture due to her fascination with faces. She ran Illuminessence Photography from 1990-2005. After photo shoots, she spent countless hours in her dark room watching the magic happen as she developed her black & white film.

Sweany concentrated on both photography and hand-built ceramic artwork while attending Indiana University, receiving her B.A. in Studio Arts. She loved the fact that the two art forms she enjoyed the most were polar opposites. Ceramics felt like wild abandon, playing in the mud of creativity, and photography required that not a speck of dust was present in the darkroom, such drastically different work environments! 

This exhibit, "Through My Own Eyes" features only a very small sampling of Sweany's photography. It includes several portraits from Sweany's 1990's body of work, "REAL: Beautiful Women" (but not nearly all of the photos from that more-than-a-decade-long project). The culture of the day seemed to only appreciate the stereo-typical beauty of youth and left many women feeling unseen. The entirety of this body of work highlighted the inner and the outer beauty of women of all ages, sizes, ethnicities, and demographics. What is shown in the gallery is only some of the framed pieces that remain.

The images  on this webpage may or may not be included in the exhibit. They are just photos that Ms. Sweany has scanned, but do not accurately reflect the intricate detail of her original hand-processed photos.

Many of these scanned images are of family or friends, so they are not necessarily a reflection of the hundreds of additional photos of friends, neighbors, and interesting faces over many years. But still, we hope you'll enjoy this sampling of imagery!

Note: none of the works in this exhibit are for purchase, but Ms. Sweany wishes to share her artwork with others while Juniper still serves as a platform.