Aleksandra Stone, a Louisville, Kentucky-based artist, creates photographs that document her experiences with depression. After the unexpected death of a friend in 2012, Stone began using photography as a way to deal with her grief. Stone hadn’t done much art before her friend passed away. “I feel like photography just kind of found me,” she said.
Stone’s photographs are all self-portraits, recreations of landscapes that embody moments or feelings of depression. She places herself in these landscapes as a way to understand her situations. Stone is currently signed to show work exclusively with the Garner Narrative, located on the corner of Market and Clay in downtown Louisville, where some of her works are currently on display.
Stone moved to Louisville in 1998 from Germany with her family as war refugees from Yugoslavia. Stone says the family picked Louisville “on a whim” out of four or five states they had to choose from. Stone speaks German and Croatian and learned English at age 11 when she came to America.
Photography is not Stone’s first medium. She studied various types of art at Manual High School such as sewing, sculpting and drawing. These skills are useful for Stone’s photography projects today; she creates many of her own props. “I’m able to utilize all of my novice skills to create a distinguished piece,” said Stone.
After the death of her friend, Stone began looking at how other artists were dealing with their grief. “I came across so many other women who found strength in photography,” Stone said. She cites Francesa Woodman—a photographer with depression who committed suicide at age 22—as well as Jo Spence—a woman who documented the effects of cancer on her body through photographs—as inspiration. For both women, and for Stone, photography was an outlet, a way to express the inexpressible.
Stone strives to portray her depression in the most honest way possible through her self-portraits. Everything in an Aleksandra Stone photograph was there in real life at the time of the shoot. Other than changing tone or contrast, Stone does minimal post-processing work on her photographs. “If I can create the environments that I’m feeling in my head when I feel depressed, then I can capture them in a photograph,” said Stone. “And they don’t have to be that beautiful and that well-crafted and that well-sculpted.”
When it comes to materials, Stone says she is drawn to certain ones for certain projects. Lately she’s been working with “cold” items, like glass, metal and chains. “There’s not many fluffy feelings when you’re dealing with grief,” said Stone. Stone’s photographs on display at the Garner Narrative are printed on pieces of aluminum, a material that falls under this category. “Grey” has bits of broken glass attached to the print, bringing this idea to life in the gallery space.
A recent project involved a dress made of tulle with bits of glass sewn onto it. Even after fighting a case of severe pneumonia and being in the hospital last November, Stone decided to shoot during the polar vortex in the glass dress. She ripped the delicate dress in her hurry to get it on. After spending about a year working on the dress, she is back at square one. “That was my favorite project, and I’d really like to remake it,” she said.
Stone did not let the shoot go to waste, however. She ended up jumping into a tree with a pair of glass horns she made for a previous photograph. “I think it worked because there was still the vulnerability that I was trying to convey in wearing the glass dress and standing out in the freezing snow.” This kind of improvisation and perseverance is important to Stone as a photographer.
“Soft,” also on display at the Garner Narrative, portrays how Stone’s environment often feels like with depression. She took the photograph on vacation in Croatia on a rock face above a body of water. Said Stone: “When I saw this environment, I just knew I had to be in it the way that I am because it just feels like sometimes I’m really weak—maybe weaker than most people—and I feel like my environment is really harsh and I’m the softest thing in it.” People will say “‘you’re weak, maybe you should just toughen up and stop feeling that way, don’t be sad,’” said Stone of her depression. “I feel like this is a perfect example of my environment most of the time.”
Stone is a writer as well as a photographer. She uses her blog (http://www.aleksandrastone.com/blog/) to combine images with written pieces. When people ask what she does, Stone isn’t sure what to say because she works with so many other mediums to create her photographs. “I feel like the writing is what brings it all together,” she said. Stone also sees how some of her darker or more graphic images could be misread. “What I try to do with the blog is give context to the pieces,” she said. “I think it just makes it easier for my viewers to create a more intimate relationship with me.” She strives to create a trust with her viewers, especially if they’ve ever experienced the feelings Stone portrays.
When she’s not working on photography projects, Stone works part-time at the library. “I spend so much time working alone on my pieces that I need to leave the house sometimes.” Stone says it would be easy to completely immerse herself in her work if she didn’t have something else to do. She says the part-time job keeps her sane.
Stone also enjoys spending a lot of time outdoors, particularly at Jefferson Memorial Forest. She shoots many of her photographs in this location and says she feels a strong connection to the forest. “There’s so much time and so much quietness to really process everything in your head,” she said. Like the materials used in her photographs, Stone also feels drawn to certain locations. “If you see a location you just know that that’s the place you need to take that photo.”
While Stone is signed with the Garner Narrative at this time, she hopes to branch out into other galleries in the future. She is currently building her portfolio and growing as an artist. She wants to continue documenting her experiences with depression and grief before considering photography of other people or things. “I know that would be more marketable and more commercial work, but at this point I’m not ready,” Stone said. “It’s almost like this is my therapy and I need to continue it first.”
Newburg 342 