Since moving to New York City in 2012, Belfast-born visual artist Jonathan David Smyth has been photographing reflections of himself. Shot completely with his camera phone, this ongoing series of self-portraits combines issues of identity, displacement, belonging, and impermanence.
As Smyth says, ”I make photographs to prove I am here. My work is cathartic, but I want other people to relate to what I am presenting. Just One More is a work of moments; it is a visual diary of my life in New York City, and these photographs are the mappings of where I have been. The pictures already exist; I am just stepping into them.”
Featuring fifty plates accompanied with handwritten captions, this monograph also includes a critical essay by the executive director of Photographic Center Northwest, Michelle Dunn Marsh, and a conversation between Jonathan David Smyth and photographer Dana Stirling.
Smyth has been exploring unanswerable questions from the past for the majority of his life, which, though painful, has provided rich terrain for his visual pursuits.
LAUNCH EVENT
The book release was celebrated at New York Public Library, Jefferson Market Library on 2 November 2017. The event featured Jonathan David Smyth and Michelle Dunn Marsh in conversation.
IN THE PRESS
Just One More has been featured on BBC Radio Ulster’s The Arts Show, MikeyPod, Aint-Bad Magazine and Prettygreentea.
I am imagining people taking [this] book and using it as a tour guide, and going back to the streets [Smyth] photographed in.
BOOK SELFIES
In the spirit of Just One More, readers have taken self-portraits with their copy of the book. Here are just a few of them. If you’ve taken your own Just One More selfie, please Tweet it to @jdavidsmyth or tag @jonathandavidsmyth on Instagram.
As a native New Yorker, a lot of places are familiar to me and I really enjoy hearing about someone else’s story that took place in that spot. All of my guests enjoy flipping through it as well. Definitely purchase!
MORE FROM bd
Just One More by Jonathan David Smyth is part of the ongoing line of artists’ books from bd-studios.com, following Retrospective by painter Michael Tice and Tentative Armor by composer and performance artist Michael Harren. All are available in affordable paperback editions designed by luke kurtis.
