Of Fire, Far Shining
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Dates2023 - 2024
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Author
Bio
J.A. Young (b. 1986) is a trans, autistic, experimental mixed media artist and photographer based in the American South.
In 2025, she was selected as the OD Prize Grand Prize Winner, a Fresh Eyes x Hungry Eye Talent Award Winner, and her debut solo monograph was shortlisted for the Les Rencontres d’Arles Author Book Award. That same year, she was also selected as a Lucie Foundation Scholarship Finalist, an InCadaqués Photography Festival Runner-Up, and was Shortlisted / Highly Commended by the Belfast Photo Festival.
Young's research-based practice draws on a range of influences (e.g., cultural anthropology, world mysticism, and the occult) to critically engage contemporary socio-political and ecological issues. Thematically, Young’s work explores how humanity has abused its own technological innovations to seize control of an entire planet: from the cultivation of fire to the advent of agriculture, all the way to the nuclear era and the age of the internet.
The final output of Young’s process consists of limited edition works on paper. Each piece belongs to an ongoing, ever-evolving body of work that Young divides into distinct phases or series — the first two of which are titled OF FIRE, FAR SHINING (2023-2024) and ANGELS (2024-present).
Statement
I am a photographer / multi-media artist based in Asheville, N.C. Using both personal photographs and public domain archival images as raw materials, my work combines various materials and methods (e.g., physical print experimentation, dramatic recomposition, and rephotography) to transform subtle feelings into tangible visual expressions. Rather than adhering to strict themes or concepts, I view each image as part of an ever-evolving landscape that mirrors the shifting contours of my perception and my emotional relationship to the world.
In 2020, a profound personal experience prompted me to reexamine the metaphysical layers of existence, catalyzing a deep dive into mysticism and a fundamental reevaluation of my ontological framework. At the same time, I began to come to grips with the scope of certain devastating realities of life on Earth: the staggering impact of corporate and consumer greed on the environment, the grisly violence perpetuated by the U.S. National Security State and its Military Industrial Complex, and the insidious reach of the repugnant ideologies that sustain these sinister forces.
The images that comprise OF FIRE, FAR SHINING marked my path as I waded through these bewildering experiences and events. While I did not enter the creative space with a predetermined narrative in mind, I am confronted with a sense of anticipation, unease, and foreboding when I view these pieces in retrospect, as if an unseen presence lurks within them, just out of reach, and threatening to emerge at any moment. Ultimately, OF FIRE, FAR SHINING explores what it feels like to be trapped within our highly strange, cataclysmic, and inevitably transformational moment — what Terence McKenna aptly referred to as “the end of history”.
