Biography
Judith Joy Ross was born in 1964. She grew up in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
Significance
She shoots mostly portraits using an 8X10 view camera. Her subjects range from children to members of Congress. Her most famous series is "Portraits of the Hazleton Public Schools", which hit really close to home, literally. She has shot many other types of photographs, including troops getting ready to ship off to war and visitors to the Vietnam Memorial in D.C.
Concept
She revisited the public schools she attended as a child and photographed students. This was her way of exploring her childhood and growing up. These schools mean a lot to her because her mother had attended them as well. To her it was childhood. She says of the series, "I feel like these pictures are my childhood. This isn't me, but it is me". Which, taken out of context, sounds really cliché and artsy deep. Just so you know where this is coming from, I say stuff like that all the time.
She shoots with an 8X10 view camera. Her black and white images seem older because of her methods, yet the subjects are most definitely 80s and 90s, which makes me want to look longer, as if there are more mysteries in each photograph.
I really enjoy her work because the view camera creates such an interesting look and great depth of field. I'm amazed that her focus is always so clear and intentional-looking. That is one thing I always have trouble with using a view camera.
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