Catherine Just, Chasing the Fog: Learning how to Breathe

Chasing the Fog::Learning how to Breathe is an exploration of personal identity specific to motherhood, divorce and falling in love. I explore my own internal dialogue through self-portraiture and by creating a visual language using personal objects as metaphor and symbolism. I’m interested in the space between the words, places felt deeply, under the surface of what appears to be reality. Diving deep into what I consider the river beneath the river, I’m constantly digging, as if I were an archeologist, looking for buried treasure. I use long exposure and movement of my own figure to explore the unknown layers that reside in a space that’s non-linear. The self-portraits and still life imagery is a visual container for what the heart hears.

Catherine Just is a conceptual and commercial photographer, living in Los Angeles, California with her 6 year old son, Max who happens to have Down syndrome. She teaches conceptual photography courses and workshops, both online and off and creates portraits for celebrity and high profile clients. Her work has been published on the cover of National Geographic Magazine, and inside Photo District News Magazine, Oprah.com, Annapurna Living and other publications and websites. Her conceptual photography work has been exhibited in solo and juried group shows around the country. She is the co-founder of the here co. a space that offers online photography courses, live workshops in Los Angeles and NYC and photo sessions around the world. She’s in the process of creating the Max Harrison Foundation, a hub to teach children with Down syndrome how to express themselves through photography.

As a young woman, Catherine struggled with addiction. She found that photography became an essential process and tool for her recovery, expressing visually what was difficult and often painful for her to express verbally. Catherine studied art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, graduating with a BFA in Photography, film and video. After being sober for 28 years, Catherine still uses photography as a form of therapy for both herself and her students.