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Down a Stream explores the idea of healing from trauma through reenactments of mind-body interventions such as hypnotherapy and restorative contact. Stemming from my own participation in these therapies, I became fascinated with the role of performance and belief in the healing process. The book includes representations of different healing methods via images of human interactions, mysterious interior spaces and still life photographs. A world made of familiar spaces and gestures is transformed into strange encounters with themes of visual entrapment and an undercurrent of disquietude. 

 

The book also weaves in fragmented text—a rewriting of my own hypnotherapy sessions that were recorded and transcribed. Vellum pages are interspersed throughout the book to conceal and reveal information. Tense muscles, bodies lifting other bodies and awkward embraces create an enigmatic experience with no comfortable resolution—a reflection of how the healing process can be unsettling and perhaps never fully complete. 

Jenica Heintzelman is a Guatemalan-American photographer born and raised in a suburb of Orlando, Florida. She attended Brigham Young University in Utah where she completed her BFA degree in photography and documentary filmmaking. In 2020, Jenica received her MFA from the Hartford Art School’s International Limited-Residency program. Currently based in Brooklyn, NY her work explores themes of vulnerability, familial relationships and the notion of healing.

Down a Stream

Photobook

8.375” x 10”

2020

Heintzelman_13.jpg

Jenica Heintzelman

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