The artist’s new exhibition Synchronicities, Traditions, and Remembrance at The Prelude Pointe Gallery in Marietta, Georgia attempts to materialize the memory of her father’s death.

When De' De’ Ajavon was just six years old, she lost her father. His passing left a gaping, unrecoverable hole that she's only recently been able to process. Using cyanotypes for their rich, murky blues, Ajavon digs through the emotional and physical reminders that continue to haunt her to this day. “Grief is a life-long, ever-evolving experience,” she writes, “and, because I was so young when he passed, I’ve had to spend my whole adult life trying to heal myself.”

Ajavon's images depict literal and metaphorical haziness, serendipity, and a perpetual void – she describes her work as a response to decades of “deep contemplation regarding time’s ability to distort our memories and how we perceive them.” It's a means to support her perpetual grieving process, act as tangible evidence of loss, and, she writes, “as a subconscious lead to the things we might have already known deep down inside.”
The exhibition is currently on view in Marietta, Georgia at The Prelude Pointe Gallery space through March 2, 2022.

I spoke with Ajavon to wade through it.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with De’ De’ Ajavon

In his new series Cosmotypes, Granville Carroll uses a cameraless photographic process as a metaphor for "reclaiming power from nothingness."

As humans often do, Granville Carroll frequently ponders the origins of the universe. “I imagine the power needed,” he writes, “to make something out of nothing.”

Carroll makes collodion plates on surfaces including glass, metal, and acrylic to mirror the creation of the cosmos. These "Cosmotypes" – dark, abstract, and prone to technical chance – reflect the mystery of what lies above and beyond and what might have come before it. For Carroll, these cameraless images are not just creation story meditations, but ruminations on control, oppositional forces, and his own cultural, spiritual, and personal journey. “I set my gaze,” writes Carroll, “on the expanse of space, marveling at the vibratory dance of light and darkness.”

A longtime fan of Carroll’s work, I caught wind of Cosmotypes in December 2020 when he shared an early image from the series on Instagram and had to learn more. A few months later, we connected to discuss its present and historic implications and the flourishing expanse of cosmological photography.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Granville Carroll

De’De' Ajavon’s Cyanotypes Ponder The Hazy Reminder of Loss and Grief

Cosmological Photography as a Symbol of Power, Balance, and Origin Stories