Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pleasepleaseletmegetwhatiwant/
Website: https://kirstynrussell.com/home.html
Biography
Kirstyn Russell received her BFA from New York University and her MFA from California College of the Arts. She received the Cadre Grant to produce 10 images from the series Where We Are Not Known as postcards and mailed them to 75 recipients. The work was reproduced in Capricious Magazine and written about in Make/Shift Magazine. She was a speaker at the Society for Photographic Education and the University of Pacific. Kirstyn is a Professor of Photography at San Joaquin Delta College.
Artist Statement
Already Seen
I photograph the tension that exists within architecture, a space, or a site. It is my intuition that guides me to these spaces. For this project, I asked myself to be open to the feeling of having done something before, or having been in a situation before, even though these were entirely new spaces to me. These feelings are like déjà vu, which is the French expression meaning “already seen.” Is déjà vu a sign of a potential psychic phenomenon? Or is it simply a memory recall lapse in your brain? In my career, I have photographed real and imagined queer spaces as a way to capture identity in the landscape. Déjà vu, a strip club in Stockton, CA, is a space I have heard about many times over the years but had yet to visit. As I was researching queer spaces in the Central Valley, I discovered that Déjà vu was a gay bar before becoming a strip club. These moments reveal that even though the queer space has been displaced, something still lingers — a type of déjà vu embedded in the landscape.
Déjà vu, 2025
Digital C Print
20x30
$500
Massages and Guns, 2025
Digital C Print
20x30
$500
Bitch Please, 2025
Digital C Print
20x30
$500