The Intimate Work of Jenny Woods (NSFW)
Sometimes a Journey song can wax poetic. “Small town girl…lonely world.” We’ve heard it before. But for whatever reason, it’s the song I can’t get out of my head while I’m sitting with Jenny Woods in a small, Persian restaurant in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Standing a towering five-foot-nothing and with a demeanor that couldn’t ruffle a sleeping kitten, Jenny, or Bunny Jenny, as she goes by, is a photographer from a very small town in Florida. She represents a new breed of photographer – one that couldn’t have existed ten years ago. Although to be fair, ten years ago, she wasn’t out of elementary school.
Jenny doesn’t consider herself a very technical shooter. In fact, her images can both frustrate and amaze those who are. There is an inherent sophistication in her images, and they have the power make you feel like you know what it’s actually like inside a sad girl’s mind. It’s easy to see that sad, lonely girl in her images…but you also see someone who dreams.
And this is why she and others like her are so important. For the first time, technology has put the power to create anything in the hands of everyone. This has allowed young photographers to use their imagination to share their perspective on the world – a perspective that has been in the hands of people who were typically older and, let’s be honest, sometimes jaded. Of course, this creates a polarization in the photographic community. Those who have spent years of their lives learning techniques that can now be done almost instantly and those who are able to do those techniques almost instantly. It is also worth noting that the latter group tends to romanticize the imperfections and looks of old film – the very things that many have developed a personal distaste for.
Jenny reaches down into her bag for her camera; she is excited to show me some street images she took earlier in the day. She says this is her first time falling in love with New York. Her camera reminds me of the guitar of an old blues musician. It’s a Canon Rebel with a rubber grip that has fallen off. She owns one lens – a 50mm with a broken autofocus. It looks like it has seen war. All this, and she still does what she does…blues music in photographic form – leaning on the improvisation for its soul.
I ask her if she reads a lot of Sylvia Plath. She laughs, but admits that she has started to recently. But where Sylvia Plath was alone, Jenny is not; she has a pretty sizable Tumblr and Flickr following. “[Social media] has connected me to beautiful strangers. It’s much easier for me to keep faith in myself with an entire fan base behind me, believing in everything I’m doing. I’m thankful for those people.”
It’s not a path towards a career for her, although she wouldn’t mind. But in ten years? “It doesn’t matter what I end up doing. I just want to be living in New York and happy.”
We eventually leave and part ways – she has a date with the city, camera in hand.
It was all a little inspiring actually, to be around someone with that much passion for what they create. I realize, though, she was right when she said she wasn’t a photographer.
She is an artist.
