Of Fire, Far Shining

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.44, archival pigment on baryta paper (2023) © J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.86, toner on newsprint (2023) © J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.14, toner on newsprint (2023) View all images ↓
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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. 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

My artistic practice has developed alongside a research practice that I have, in which the subjects I explore are those that come across my path by means of synchronicity. Over the years, this intuitive research has led me to explore the way humans have abused our technological innovations throughout history, from the cultivation of fire to the advent of agriculture, all the way to the nuclear era and the age of the internet.

In early 2023, while researching this trajectory and trying to understand how one species could bring an entire global ecosystem to the brink of collapse, I began an ongoing project about humanity’s unwavering domination over this planet we neither own nor understand. The first part of this project is a selection of prints I made between 2023-2024, which I call OF FIRE, FAR SHINING.

The images in this project engage photography, appropriated archival materials, and intuitive inquiry to explore the complexities of contemporary existence and the mystery of metaphysical reality. Drawing on my personal experience as a queer, trans, autistic person living in a world dominated by men, OF FIRE, FAR SHINING expresses a sense of dread, outrage, and grief for a world made hostile by rampant militarization, technological hyper-violence, and unrelenting ecological devastation.

Using both personal and public domain images as raw materials or substrates, my process begins with an initial deconstruction of the source material through radical re-framing and structural distortion. This foundational intervention is then followed by a multi-layered transformation that includes darkroom experimentation, physical print manipulation, overpainting, and rephotography. Maintaining no loyalty to the original image, the resulting compositions serve as psychic landscapes, disclosing nonverbal emotional states, subverted linear narratives, and resonant, often ambiguous meanings.

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© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.44, archival pigment on baryta paper (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.44, archival pigment on baryta paper (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.86, toner on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.86, toner on newsprint (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.14, toner on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.14, toner on newsprint (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.120, toner on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.120, toner on newsprint (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.82, toner on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.82, toner on newsprint (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.66, toner on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.66, toner on newsprint (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.18, toner on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.18, toner on newsprint (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.19, toner and masking tape on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.19, toner and masking tape on newsprint (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.119, toner on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.119, toner on newsprint (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.105, toner on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.105, toner on newsprint (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.78, toner on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.78, toner on newsprint (2023)

© J.A. Young - Of Fire, Far Shining no.117, toner and acrylic paint on newsprint (2023)
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Of Fire, Far Shining no.117, toner and acrylic paint on newsprint (2023)

Of Fire, Far Shining by J.A. Young

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