Jess Levey

In Sightlines, I examine photography’s historical role in systems of power, from colonial land surveys to patriarchal ideals of the female body. I layer 19th-century archival landscapes with self-portraits inspired by iconic photographic nudes, placing my body within histories that once framed land and women as objects to be claimed and consumed. These images rest on the sliced edges of my own 35mm negatives, grounding the work in material history and lived experience. Custom lightboxes illuminate the layers, revealing both the histories embedded in the images and the presence of a body that resists the fixation on youth and thinness.