Collection: Karen Jerzyk

Photographs from Karen Jerzyk's "Lonely Astronaut" series featuring surreal and fantastic scenes meticulously staged in abandoned homes and spaces throughout The United States.

Artist Statement:

Karen Jerzyk’s photographs capture the haunting beauty of isolation in her elaborately staged scenes. The Lonely Astronaut and 1969 are the newest series from her highly acclaimed body of work. In these images you will find a lonely astronaut wandering the interiors of long-since abandoned buildings in an America, 1,000 years from today. Jerzyk spent countless hours cleaning and restoring these spaces before each photoshoot began. It is this meticulous attention to lighting, texture, color, and the presence of lingering debris that creates such an enticing mood of romantic desolation. The inspiration behind these images is drawn from Jerzyk’s personal life, but she intends them to be “readable images”, with no right answer. The ultimate meaning of her work is determined by the viewer.

Artist Biography:

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Karen Jerzyk is a largely self-taught and internationally exhibited artist. She began taking pictures in abandoned spaces early on in her career, but now carefully selects locations for her on-site photoshoots after an encounter with the police in 2014. It was this mix-up with the police, though, that threw her work into the spotlight. Since then, her photography has drawn the attention of notable art magazines such as Colossal, Hi-Fructose Magazine, Artscope Magazine, PULSE, and many others. Currently, Jerzyk travels the United States for various projects and exhibitions and continues to explore the possibilities of narrative storytelling in photography.