Words and Photos by Amy Jorgensen

“Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue”

Cyanotype prints on vintage handkerchiefs
12x12 inches
Edition of 5 / 2AP with variations

Amy Jorgensen’s series Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue addresses the continuing relevance of the women’s rights movement since its inception in 19th century England to its robust manifestations today. In 1913 the Criminal Records Office of Scotland Yard dispersed to its officers the first surveillance images of eighteen suffragettes. At great personal cost, the women were outspoken activists and ultimately jailed at the infamous Halloway Prison. The historic images are transferred onto vintage handkerchiefs and rendered in cyanotype prints, an early 19th century photographic process instantly recognizable for its brilliant cobalt blue color, and popularized by Anna Atkins, the first female photographer. Inspired by her ancestor, Edna Berg, a suffragette in New York City in the early part of the 20th century, Jorgensen explores modes of women’s protest via themes of oppression, surveillance, and the construction of female identity through generational traditions of domestic labor, intimacy, and exchange among women.

Amy Jorgensen is an interdisciplinary artist whose diverse practice involves creating conceptually immersive works that mine historical and contemporary perspectives to explore intersecting narratives of the body, desire, violence and power. With solo exhibitions at LA><Art in Los Angeles, Elizabeth Houston Gallery in NYC and Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Jorgensen’s work has been exhibited in over 75 exhibitions world-wide including the historic all-woman FAIR during Miami Art Week, GuatePhoto Festival, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Oceanside Museum of Art, AIPAD, and Filter Space. A recipient of multiple grants, her work has been featured in Artnet News, Huffington Post, New York Arts Magazine, Don’t Take Pictures, Katalog, At Length Magazine, Dialogue and others. Dedicated to the arts as a maker, facilitator and educator, Jorgensen was recently honored as one of Utah’s Most Influential Artists. She is the Director and Curator at Granary Arts, head of photography at Snow College, and a member of the Board of Directors for the Utah Arts Council. Jorgensen lives and works remotely in the high plains desert of Utah.