Jal., MX 062919

Ariana Mygatt
issue of Northwest Review.

Jal., MX 062919 is a single work from a series of photographs made in 2019. This image was created using multiple exposures on a continuous piece of black and white 120 film, exposed to light multiple times with only partial movements of the film between exposures. The entire roll was shot on a broken, plastic toy camera and the process is largely experimental. Though the sequence of images is planned, the way the images present themselves and overlap is unknowable, and the process of moving the negative between exposures is largely intuitive.

The result is an overlapping panorama, moving in and out of different irises and perspectives of a single location along the Pacific in Jalisco, Mexico. The strip brings to mind an old home film reel or slide projector, with flashbulb memories coming in and out of focus: the things we’ve seen, the temperatures and textures we’ve felt, the places we’ve been, all receding in and out of the darkness of our memories as we close and open and close our eyes.

Ariana Mygatt is an artist educator working professionally in public school education, magazine production, and photography in Baltimore. She teaches and runs the photography program at Parkville High School. She is also the managing editor of Womanly Magazine, a print and digital publication that provides accessible health information to women and non-binary people through visual and literary art.