Diana Nicholette Jeon - Published Articles

My Writing

The Female Gaze (FRAMES Magazine)

Poignant Pics (OneTwelve)

  • Poignant Pics no. 89: On Melanie Walker's "Leaves of Absence" — One Twelve

    Given that her photographer father, Todd Walker, was well-known for pushing at the edges of photography, it's not surprising that Todd Walker imparted his exploratory nature upon his daughter. Walker grew up in her father's studio, often surrounded by his photographer friends, many of whom we now co

  • Poignant Pics no. 88: On Cynthia Gladis' “Noir" — One Twelve

    Gladis said, “I’ve always been drawn to night photography, as darkness can turn the most benign daytime scene into something with a much different mood.”

  • Poignant Pics no. 87: On J. K. Lavin's “Mapping the History of the Moon” — One Twelve

    "Inserting myself into the image acknowledges my artist's hand and records the passage of time.”

  • Poignant Pics no. 86: On John Hesketh's “Entanglement” — One Twelve

    The luminous moments of Passage are performances of contemplation and meditation, an experience of feeling the presence of absence. I called it her gone-ness. I challenged myself to create as many worlds as I could find in a single stucco wall on the side of our house.

  • Poignant Pics no. 85: On Kym Gee's "No Trespassing" — One Twelve

    I love diptychs or triptychs, I love the "interesting conversations" that happen when disparate-seeming images are skillfully forced to hold space together.

  • Poignant Pics no. 84: On Ammandine Nabarra's Artist Book, "It Doesn't Hurt Any More" — One Twelve

    Who makes an artist photobook out of image transfers on clay?

  • Poignant Pics no. 83: On Jacqueline Walters’ “My Mother” — One Twelve

    The dichotomies and questions pictured within the image brought me so many new questions and brought me back to look at again and again.

  • Poignant Pics no. 82: On Kurt Schroeder's “Untitled Triptych” — One Twelve

    Photo historian Michel Frizot wrote, "The photograph is not in its essence a transparency through which we gain access to a known reality but, on the contrary, a source of ambiguity and often, perplexity. The photographic image is a constellation of questions for the eye because it offers viewe

  • Poignant Pics no. 81: On Ann Mitchell's "Chance Chronicle Animations nos. 3 & 6" — One Twelve

    Mitchell writes, "These are spaces of transition. I create a world between a dream and a cinematic still. There is a sense that the space and narrative continue beyond the frame, with echoes from a past existence, that nature will eventually have its way with us.

  • Poignant Pics no. 80: On Yvette Meltzer's “Sure!” — One Twelve

    Meltzer told me photography allows her to see the world from a fresh perspective. Having spent a long career in education and social services, she shares some of what she learned via her series, Through the Lens of Children, from which this picture, Sure!, arises.

  • Poignant Pics no. 79: On Donna Garcia's "Limes" — One Twelve

    The dichotomies and questions pictured within the image brought me so many new questions and brought me back to look at again and again.

  • Poignant Pics no. 78: On Robin Assner-Alvey's "Untitled (Image Transfer #37)" — One Twelve

    Asner-Alvey told me that using her body repetitiously displays her ongoing struggle to gather and reconstruct the fractured pieces of her humanity. She continued, "The process of image transfers mimics the textures of skin and creates a bifurcated visceral, painterly image."

  • Poignant Pics no. 77: On Anne Berry's "The Visitor" — One Twelve

    Though The Visitor could have been made anywhere with an aging and neglected building, it sings to me of my mental picture of the South (which is most likely a fairy tale that exists only in my head.)

  • Poignant Pics no. 76: On Sheri Lynn Behr's “New Normal” — One Twelve

    Zoom became a lifeline for many of us during the pandemic. But what when one of the participants secretly goes beyond simply participating? Where is the line between looking, voyeurism, and spying?

  • Poignant Pics no. 75: On Jamie Marcellus' the beginning and end of duality — One Twelve

    I am interested in the way the textures make a statement within the frame. It gives me the impression of emerging from something negative.

  • Poignant Pics no. 74: On Dale Nile's “Under the Waxing Moon” — One Twelve

    Welcome to no. 74 in our series Poignant Pics, where our editor, Diana Nicholette Jeon, writes about Dale Niles’ image, “Under the Waxing Moon.” "Some things can only be seen in the shadows.” — Carlos Ruiz Zafon" I‘ve been acquainted with Dale Niles and her work via Facebook for the past five years, perhaps longer. I admire her ability to use different styles of image-making to call our attention to something she wants us to know or experience.

  • Poignant Pics no.67: On Two Images By Kate Carpenter — One Twelve

    Welcome to no. 67 in our series Poignant Pics, where our editor, Diana Nicholette Jeon, writes about two images by Kate Carpenter “Snapshots remember—when you forget.”—Eastman Kodak advertisement, Life Magazine, Dec. 18, 1950. A few months back, Andy Adams of Flak was trying to gather more photographers as a community on Twitter. I had been on Twitter since around 2009; I mainly used it for national politics and local news. I knew a couple of photographers there, but it wasn't until Andy called attention to it that I started thinking about the photo community on Twitter. That is how I met Kate Carpenter.

  • Poignant Pics no. 71: On Two Images from Todd Bradley — One Twelve

    Bradley began this project during the pandemic. As he walked his dogs, he would pick flowers to photograph during confinement. It initially started when Bradley needed something beautiful to focus on during the pandemic gloom, similar to what my initial thoughts surmised. But it blossomed into somet

  • Poignant Pics no. 71: On Diana Cheren Nygren's “Open Flame” — One Twelve

    Welcome to no. 71 in our series Poignant Pics, where our editor, Diana Nicholette Jeon, writes about Diana Cheren Nygren’s image, “Open Flame.” “Which will hold greater rule over you? Your fear or your curiosity?” I've known about Diana Cheren Nygren's work for several years. I thought the beach people on high rises had a different twist on photoshop compositing; then, I saw more recent work that used heirloom images. I groaned to myself, "Oh no, not yet another person using old photos. So much of that relies on the viewer's sentimentality for the old photography. There is usually no strong concept that ties the image to the person's photographs they are composited with." (Mind you, not all work of that genre, but that is how the majority of it I see appears to me.) In February of this year, Diana and I exhibited together in a competitively curated 15-person international selection of photographers for the 2022 Exposure Festival at Calgary Contemporary. The festival invited both of us to serve on a four-person panel discussion entitled Conversations on Identity and Personal Narrative in Photography. The work Cheren Nygren had in the show was from the aforementioned series, so I heard her talk about it. Oh my, did I hear it. What she said about her project was enough to take me from "Oh no, not series another using old photos," to "Oh my God, this work is genius! What a brilliant use of heirloom images!" Through this chance meeting, we also learned we were both participating in the ExLab 2022 workshop run by Michael Foley of NYC's Foley Gallery. Because we were in different sections, we had no idea that we were both participants until we spoke during the online talk. The workshop culminates in a group exhibition; the 2022 exhibition opens tomorrow, July 7th. The work I am showing you, Open Flame, is from her newest series, The World Needs a Superhero, some of which Cheren Nygren is showing there.

  • Poignant Pics no.70: On Kristen Joy Emack’s “Fern” — One Twelve

    Welcome to no. 70 in our series Poignant Pics, where our editor, Diana Nicholette Jeon, writes about Kristen Joy Emack’s image, “Fern.” “When does a girl stop growing up? At puberty? At eighteen? When she marries? When she gets her first white hair? Or does she never feel she’s grown up no matter how old she gets? Is she still filled with girlish dreams when she takes her last breath?”― Zülfü Livaneli

Poignant Portfolio and other OneTwelve features

  • Nancy Scherl Interview — One Twelve

    Diana Nicholette Jeon interviews Nancy Scherl about her recently published book Dining Alone: In The Company of Solitude. Scherl states, “I often consider the work to be both biographical as well as autobiographical. I draw from pictorial and documentary genres in much of my work, notably when wor

  • Janet Holmes Interview — One Twelve

    Janet Holmes is a Toronto-based photographer who is a talented and passionate advocate for her subject, rescued farm animals. I “met” Janet several years ago in a class we both took with Laura Valenti. Despite the vast differences in artistic style and subject matter, we rapidly found common ground and became friends (and fans! ) of each other and our respective works. It would be about two more years before we would finally meet face-to-face - at Medium Portfolio Review in San Diego in 2018.

  • 15 Years Ago Today…the day that changed how we do, uhm…everything — One Twelve

    On January 9, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs stood on the stage and did what he had always done best throughout his career. He gave us something we never knew we needed or wanted, but that shortly thereafter would wonder how we ever lived without it. For on that day, he introduced us to the first iPhone

  • Celebrating Women's History Month — One Twelve

    We’ve decided to commemorate Women’s History Month by closing it out with a post celebrating women of photography who have influenced us. We hope you enjoy!

  • In Conversation with Chris Byrnes | Head On Photo Festival

    Image: Chris Byrnes, Solar light Diana Nicholette Jeon interviews Australian multi-media artist Chris Byrnes to find out what drives her creative practice.

  • Diffusion Tube no. 1: FAKE NEWS!…In Conversation with Eric Kunsman — One Twelve

    Eric Kunsman, with Volume II of FAKE NEWS I first met Eric Kunsman in January 2019, when he sat behind me for several days in Mary Virginia Swanson’s Masterclass. Fast forward three months, and we met again at Photolucida in Portland, cementing our then-fledgling friendship. In the ensuing time, we have spent quite a few hours together, virtually - via messaging apps and in Zoom seminars, sometimes both at the same moment.

  • Poignant Portfolio no 46: Matthew Finley's “Whispering Eden” — One Twelve

    As a viewer, I feel the lived emotions the creator has embedded in the frame via their story. Finley's work is authentically chronicled from his life experiences; his emotional life shoots out of the images like water pouring from a hydrant. But it's not shouting—it's softly whispering its

  • Poignant Portfolio no 32: Carolina Krieger — One Twelve

    I've been following the work of Carolina Krieger for a while now. She has a diverse range of series, from quiet to artfully quirky pieces. I'm amazed that she is a self-taught photographer; she must have been a famous artist in a past life. I had a difficult time choosing which series to show you. Krieger's newest work is quite different from this one; it's black and white, torn, degraded. I am enamored of it. I thought I would show you that, but recently I saw some of it featured elsewhere, hence decided to show you this body of work, O Espelho do Avesso (The Mirror of the Reverse), instead. Though I highly recommend that you visit her website to look at the newer work as well.

  • Poignant Portfolio no 31: Megan Bent — One Twelve

    I've been vaguely aware of Megan Bent's work since the day in 2012 when I happened upon her MFA thesis exhibition a few hours before it closed. Though we are both graduates of UH Manoa’s art program, my sole interactions with her were the occasional comment interactions in the Flak FB group. This is where, coincidently, I found this project. It was a comment under a question asking what people had been working on this year.

  • Poignant Portfolio no 30: Archana Vikram — One Twelve

    Archana Vikram's photographic series "The Unwelcome" brings to light the untold horrors of female infanticide routinely practiced in India and is a call for action to put an end to this barbaric practice.

  • Poignant Portfolio no 34: Michelle Robinson — One Twelve

    I adore photography that crosses boundaries: mixed media, installation, projection; I love it all. I'm also a huge fan of work that is bound to processes. Perhaps that is the printmaker in me or just my love of Ann Hamilton's installation, but I'm not sure it matters why. I find the methodical repetitiveness engaged by highly process-oriented works to add depth to projects. I stumbled upon Michelle Robinson's work when I saw a PR notice in my FB feed for an upcoming exhibition of her work entitled You Are Not Here. I knew I had to see more, so I went online and searched the interwebs, where I came upon this project, Transmission. This mixed media work is unusual in that it manifests in various forms, including wet darkroom work, collage, printmaking, encaustic, and sewing.

  • Poignant Portfolio no. 28: Jo Anne Chaus — One Twelve

    Conversations with Myself is a body of work in which I masquerade as another, summoning up unconscious ideas I’d neither examined nor expressed. This work represents a coalescence, of becoming. In looking at myself channel my mother, and every woman who came before me. I channel the constraints imposed on them, by society, family, and themselves. I channel the resignation and the surrender, and I channel a coalescing of strength and courage.

  • Poignant Portfolio no. 24 Kristoffer Johnson — One Twelve

    To Which We Return focuses on the impermanence and fragility of the human body and the physiological problems that are inherent with existence. The human body is a fragile construct that ages and decays. As the Buddhist concept of impermanence states, everything is temporary and subject to rise and fall. Mortality is an unavoidable and inevitable fact that humanity must face despite the sense of control which society and self-awareness gives us. Reflection on death is common throughout human history. This work draws from two such traditions, the Buddhist meditation Maranasati “mindfulness of death” and the Western visual tradition of Memento Mori “remember that you must die.”

  • Poignant Portfolio no. 23: Jane Szabo — One Twelve

    Graciously infused with movement, Sense of Self is a series of expressive, conceptual self-portraits. Using movement and light to create a blurred, diffuse quality, I confront my own vulnerability, as well as my attempts to create a sense of order from the natural chaos of personal environment and e

  • Poignant Portfolio no. 22: Joseph Wright — One Twelve

    Reimagined Landscapes by Joseph Wright This work was borne out of threads of inquiry and experimentation, and an almost obsessive need to continue to remain creative and somehow escape the initial pandemic lockdown in March 2020. Attempting to stay connected to the environments I was now denied acc

  • Poignant Portfolio no. 20: Sara Silks — One Twelve

    Recovery of Small thoughts - a book diary text in words and photographs

  • Poignant Portfolios no. 18-Neil Kramer, Quarantine in Queens — One Twelve

    Quarantine in Queens is a diaristic visual journal of a paradoxical family experiencing the COVID-19 quarantine together inside one apartment in Queens, NY.

Additional Features (from a myriad of sites)