Jenna Caschera, Photography
Jun 2008 to Jul 2008, Oakwood Neighborhood
Uncanny
Exhibit is up through the end of July.
The uncanny is known as a Freudian concept that was adopted originally from Ernst Jentsch. To be canny—the root of the term—means to know; therefore uncanny would relate to the unknown. The term was used frequently in the Surrealist movement to describe a strange sense of familiarity that can be repulsive yet captivating simultaneously.
While thinking about this term and the role it played in photography, I questioned why one might feel uncanny while looking at a particular image. Photography in its history has shocked us, numbed us, and turned us into voyeurs. The amount of images that we see in one day is enormous. The ones that hold our attention tend to have a sense of eeriness and beauty that we cannot quite put our finger on; they become the uncanny.
Perhaps the uncanny relates to repressed emotions that we as human beings feel. Often we bury our desires, especially those that are sexual, with a feeling of shame until it surfaces. Photography becomes a language that triggers our impulses, desires, and memories. Our tendencies are briefly acknowledged through the language of images.
Jenna Caschera
