Juno Calypso (born 1989) is a British photographer. Her self-portraits are personal works about feminism, isolation, loneliness and being self-sufficient. Working alone, Calypso has made highly stylised photographs of herself whilst dressed as a fictional alter-ego, "Joyce", in unusual surroundings. She also works as a commercial photographer. Calypso was joint winner of the ''

British Journal of Photography The ''British Journal of Photography'' (BJP) is a magazine about photography, published by 1854 Media. It includes in-depth articles, profiles of photographers, analyses, and technological reviews. History The magazine was established in Liver ...

'' International Photography Award in 2016. In 2018 she received the Vic Odden Award from the Royal Photographic Society.

Life and work

Calypso was born in Hackney, London in 1989. She gained an Art Foundation Diploma from

Chelsea College of Arts Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educat ...

( University of the Arts London) in 2008 and a BA in Photography from

London College of Communication The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation, film, graphic design, photography and sound arts. It has approximately ...

(University of the Arts London) in 2012. For her personal work, working alone Calypso has photographed highly stylised self-portraits of herself whilst costumed as a fictional alter-ego, "Joyce", a "bored, frustrated, lonely housewife of her imagination", in unfamiliar, unusual and over-the-top surroundings. For her series ''Joyce,'' Calypso photographed herself in various hotel rooms. The work is about the "oppressive elements of femininity", its "restrictive beauty regimes and modern rituals of seduction". She has said "I'm trying to make a perfect photograph of a woman trying to create a perfect vision of herself." In ''The Honeymoon'' series, she photographed herself alone in an American couples-only honeymoon resort. Nell Frizzell wrote in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' that "there is a sense of airless claustrophobia about much of Calypso’s work. But in the Honeymoon Hotel pictures, that frustration is twinned with loneliness." Alexandra Genova wrote in ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' that her "work is a delicate dance between comedy and despair." Calypso has said:

I used to take pictures of Joyce as a way of making a critique on the laboured construction of femininity, but now I’m starting to see that the problem isn’t the make-up and bizarre body improvement devices, but the way society treats women who invest so deeply in their appearance."

She also works as a commercial photographer.

Publications with contributions by Calypso

*''The Catlin Art Guide: New Artists in the UK.'' Catlin Holdings, 2013. By Justin Hammond. . *''It's Nice That Annual.'' London: It's Nice That, 2013. *''Mossless 4: Public/Private/Portrait.'' Brooklyn, NY: Romke Hoogwaerts; New York:

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

, 2016. . *''Girl on Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze.'' London: Laurence King, 2017. By Charlotte Jansen. . *''Firecrackers: Female Photographers Now.'' London: Thames & Hudson, 2017. By Fiona Rogers and Max Houghton. .

Short films

*''The Linda Evans Rejuvenique Facial Toning System'' (2012) *''Empty Pleasures'' (2012) *''The Making of Joyce'' (2014) *''The Honeymoon Suite'' (2015)

Awards

*2013: Winner, Visitor Vote, Catlin Art Prize, XL Catlin *2016: Joint winner, ''

'' International Photography Award, for ''Joyce.'' The other winner was Felicity Hammond. *2016: One of 24 selected, Foam Talent Call,

Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Foam or Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam is a photography museum located at the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The museum has four different exhibitions at any given time in which different photographic genres are shown, such as documen ...

*2018: Vic Odden Award, Royal Photographic Society, Bath

Solo exhibitions

*Artist of the Day, selected by

Tom Hunter Sir Thomas Blane Hunter (born 6 May 1961) is a Scottish businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Sports Division Tom set up his first business after graduating from the University of Strathclyde as he was, in his own words, "unemployab ...

, Flowers Gallery, London, 2015 *''71a Presents: Juno Calypso,'' 71a Gallery, London, October 2015 *''What to Do with a Million Years,'' TJ Boulting, London, May–June 2018; Studio Giangaleazzo Visconti, Milan, Italy, 2018/2019

References

External links

*
"Juno Calypso's Five Favourite Objects"
for ''British Vogue'' (video)
Calypso talk for It's Nice That in 2016
(video)
Calypso talk for It's Nice That in 2017
(video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Calypso, Juno 1989 births Living people 21st-century British photographers 21st-century English women artists 21st-century women photographers Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts Alumni of the London College of Communication Conceptual photographers English women photographers Feminist artists People from Hackney, London Photographers from London