J.A. Young’s series Angels is quietly unsettling, each image containing that unshakeable, unknowable, uncanny feeling that deepens the longer one looks at them. Wrought from their own photography, archival images and personal research, the source material is reframed and distorted before a phase of darkroom experimentation, reframing and rephotographing begins.  

The angels in Young's series are not the bright, golden, do-good type, but rather sinister, malevolent beings, which wield their unearthly power to nefarious ends. The works’ lack of context creates a sense of confrontation, it is not always clear who is the victim and who is the perpetrator. This is enhanced by the layered and multiperspectival quality, coming from the process of archival imagery, and reframing and reformulation. For Young, whose practice continually researches and interrogates systems of power, these angels are symbolic of modern institutions–corporate, religious, governmental–mysterious entities with powers which extend far beyond their reach. 

J.A. YOUNG is a trans, autistic photographic artist based in the American South. Working primarily with handmade silver gelatin prints, Young produces unique and limited edition works on paper. Young was shortlisted for both the 2025 Les Rencontres d’Arles Author Book Award and the 2026 Belfast Photo Festival, and selected as the 2025 OD Prize Grand Prize Winner.

ISABEL WALTER is a writer and curator based in Amsterdam. She currently works as Assistant Curator at Foam, and Editorial Assistant at Foam Magazine. She is particularly interested in art which expands the technical and conceptual boundaries of photography, moving image and new technologies.