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Jessica Strang@jessicastrang_photolibrary
Jessica has always been what others have described as a “Qwerky” photographer with an eye for the unusual that few others notice but after the image is pointed out, respond that they “hadn’t noticed that”!!! Having worked as an assistant to Alan Fletcher at Pentagram Design Partnership Ltd, Jessica's photographs often appeared in many of Pentagram's publications, such as PENTAGRAM PAPERS 2 THE PESSIMIST UTOPIA by Theo Crosby. Having produced her own book “Working Women” with Lorraine Johnson which was published by Thames and Hudson in London and Abrahams in New York, her work on follow up books was cut short by diagnosis of a Pituitary tumour. This burst and required treatment with surgery, followed by radiotherapy, a life-time of pills and prolonged convalescence. During this convalescence her first trial photographic project was documenting the building of the “Gherkin” 30 St Mary Axe, London, built just outside our flat. Fortunately this job could be done with a single camera on a tripod as the combined surgery and radiation had left her finding it increasingly difficult to lift the weight of a Nikon with long lens for prolonged photographic jobs. This led to her having to give up her regular Architectural Photographer job. Fortunately this was the beginning of the Digital Camera era and she began to learn how to use her trusty Sony Cyber-Shot and file her photographs on a Mac computer. In 2002 while photographing the Gherkin, she spotted a house whose roof structure made the letter “A”. Shortly after in 2007, Doris Salcedo unveiled Shibboleth ('the crack') at Tate Modern -Turbine Hall. This featured a zig-zag in the middle and was photographed by Jessica as she realised she had found an example of the letter “Z” and the idea of doing a “Found Alphabets” book began to form. Twelve years and 225,000 photos later she had 2,000 pictures filed in mock ups for 6 books. The first “Found Alphabets” self published in 2015 is now available from blurb . Jessica has since made - 'Working Men'(2016) a follow-up from her 1989 published book 'Working Women', Jessica Flowers (2017) followed by London Safari: Shooting Lions and other mythical beasts, (2018), and three books in 2019,'Second Time Around' Greening the Concrete Jungle' and Jessica's Birds. 2020 saw the book Collaborating Couples. We hope you enjoy the books and do drop us a line to share your comments, Jessica would love to hear them. Thank you. |