Jorian Charlton

Kaleb

Jorian Charlton

About the Artwork

Jorian Charlton’s evocative portraits often straddle the worlds of fashion editorial and intimate family photographs. After Charlton connects with sitters through social media, and acquaints herself with their styles of self-presentation to inform her collaborative photoshoots, she deliberately shoots on a medium-format film camera. Her viewfinder requires her to look downward, at a mirrored image of the scene before the camera. With only ten shots per roll of film, every capture is intensely considered, slowing down the photographic process. Kaleb stands out in Charlton’s impressive body of work. Whereas other images are intensely stylised and atmospheric, this straight-on portrait of a young boy – who appears majestic even in his simple white shirt, by a chain-link fence – cuts to the crux of Charlton’s focus on themes of Black family life, community, and love. Kaleb evokes stories and memories that compose the tapestry of Caribbean diasporas, revealing Charlton’s nuanced understanding, and celebration, of Jamaican-Canadian culture.

Kaleb

2020
Framed baryta fine art print
Open edition
19" x 24"
Estimate: $1,250

Courtesy the artist and Cooper Cole, Toronto

About Jorian Charlton

Jorian Charlton (b. 1989, Toronto, ON) earned a Bachelor of Photography at Sheridan College, and has had solo exhibitions at the Gallery TPW, Art Gallery of Ontario, Cooper Cole, Toronto; and the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga. She has had a recent solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario (2021), and will be featured in an upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Her work is included in the traveling exhibitions The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, first curated for the 2021 edition of Les Recontres de la Photographie in Arles, and As We Rise: Photography from the Black Altantic. Charlton has created a number of public art projects in Toronto in collaboration with Toronto’s Year of Public Art, and Contact Photography Festival. Jorian Charlton currently lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where she is represented by Cooper Cole.