Jo Ann Chaus

The Exquisite State of Imbalance | Photography is the lens through which Jo Ann negotiates her world as a daily practice.

She is arrested by the brilliance and the darkness of the beauty before and within her, enmeshed with life’s complexities, relationships, expectations, disappointments, surprises, joys and desires, and with great curiosity and resiliency reaches and stretches herself using the deep, raw, and authentic places she accesses during the process of making her work.

These images are a selection from a series of performance driven work entitled "Conversations with Myself, The State of Exquisite Imbalance", where Jo Ann embodies assorted nineteen-fifties era women who are evaluating themselves and the roles they have performed over their lifetimes, with misplaced identities, as they search for it and discover, with courage, tenacity and perseverance, who they are.  The work is an homage to and a connection with women of all generations who struggle as wife or mother, juggling the demands of nurturing the family while finding time to nurture themselves, their desires, and their dignity. 

The work quietly alludes to the significant growth and metamorphosis, emotionally and psychologically, that is possible for all, with great reflection, consideration, and determination. www.joannchaus.com