Laura Jane Petelko

Nightlife

Created in 2023 and still under creating, this series “Nightlife" is an organic extension of my current series, "Phototropic," delving deeper into our intricate relationship with nature.

In this new series, I find myself drawn back to the analogue realm, navigating the increasing presence of AI in the art world. Embracing the tangible and the visceral, I embark on a journey to create slightly altered natural landscapes directly within the camera. Each image serves not as a collaboration with technology but as a document of the union or experience — a moment to be felt and shared.

The thematic core of "Nightlife" extends beyond the visual aesthetics of nature; it explores the dynamic interplay between the organic and the artificial. Amidst the ever-growing integration of AI in art, I consciously choose to return to the raw essence of photography, crafting each image with intention and authenticity.

I am captivated by the idea that these images transcend mere representation; they become a testament to the intimate connection between the artist and the natural world. It is an exploration of the unspoken dialogue that occurs when the camera captures a scene altered through the lens, a testament to the power of human creativity.

As I continue to navigate this artistic journey, I am excited to see how the "Nightlife" series unfolds, building upon the themes of "Phototropic." My work seeks not only to visually captivate but also to provoke contemplation on the evolving dynamics between nature, art, and technology. This series is an invitation for viewers to join me in this exploration, to feel the union and experience the profound beauty of our shared connection with the natural world. 

Phototropic

Created in 2022, this series is inspired by the idea of phototropism: the process whereby living organisms are naturally drawn to search out the light.

This work is a natural evolution from the Ma series, a grouping of womb-like, magnetic abstractions photographed during pandemic lockdowns in collaboration with dancers from the National Ballet of Canada, which opened at The Lyceum Gallery in 2021.

Experimenting with color tones and their varied emotional resonance, Petelko aims to see this work as modular in nature. Encouraging the sense of duality and dialogue between the human and botanical forms. As shown in the configuration Nightshade Gold and Lift.

Phototropic is an evolution, born out of our primal instinct to be at one with nature. To submerge into water and to reach for the sun as charged, fresh botanical life. To reemerge and discover ourselves.
These images are abstracted during the photographic process, using various organic elements to remove information, leaving the sense of coming in and out of dreams.

MA

Ma is a Japanese concept of negative space that relates to all aspects of life. Rather than an absence, the gap in perception that allows for diffuse thought. The interval created, whether in the mind or the physical realm, is a regenerative pause. Within this space, a break in the composition of our active minds can exist, deepening our awareness of what is around us. 

This series was photographed during the pandemic lockdowns. Collaborating with dancers from the National Ballet of Canada, Choreographers, and other artists, who were unable to perform at the time. 

The images were photographed outside and at a distance with the collaborative aim to urgently transcend the moment and the confines of the reality, we were all living through.

To leave a beautiful mark from the unknown place and of our solitary but collective worlds in transformation.

Endless Gone

Endless Gone is an ongoing series of large scale, plexi mounted photographs meant to explore memory and mood from a sensory perspective. 

Inspired by the beauty and poetry we create when we evoke our past. With details undefined and unassigned to time or place. What is left is the essence, the light, color and feeling that we carry with us. 

In this process, Petelko experiments with abstraction to seek the point where a document is stripped of the details that inform our rational mind and take us to a place where mood and feeling remain before we are lost into abstraction. 

Endless Gone explores a painterly and abstracted approach to photography.  Beginning in the 2000's, Petelko began an exploration in photography that was emotionally based and stripped down to the essentials of light, color and often movement in order to provide the distance that memory itself can create, making room for the senses to play.

At a time when photography began its obsession with megapixels and resolution, Petelko was pulled in another direction. In search of that sacred space where the viewer collaborates with the work to create a truly intimate interpretation.