Steven Audia’s exhibition 20/2020, a collection of photographs showing at The James Black Gallery, is a far cry from the show that he had been preparing for pre-pandemic. As with most of the past year, plans have been replaced with something else entirely. A carefully curated showcase of photos taken by Audia from 2010-2020 gave way to 20/2020, a project that grew organically—a quality that translates into the images themselves.

They say an author can only write about themselves, that even the most fictitious story has an autobiographical element to it. The same can be said for most creative mediums. Audia experiences this with his photography, finding pieces of himself in each portrait. For Audia, turning the lens towards his subjects is an exploration of the self and a chance for introspection. Practicing this self-awareness allowed him to notice the changes in his photography over the past year. 

The 20 images chosen from the year 2020 are a mixture of portraits and stills, all of which reflect back to the observer with what many of us have experienced throughout the pandemic: a raw, stripped-down view of the people that surround us, a small bubble to sustain human connection, and an appreciation for everyday objects that have come to take on a deeper meaning. The small collection of photographs represent how our worlds have shrunk to allow for only a few people and how the minutiae of daily life saves our sanity.

“Closeness, something that now feels almost taboo, has become a primary subject, along with memories of life ‘before’,” Audia wrote in the artist statement for this exhibition. These photos make you want to lean in. The visceral reaction you have when you see these honest, raw, direct, and intimate photos reveal this deprivation effect on our psyche. 

Audia works solely in black and white, a practice that he has come back to time and time again: “Black and white photographs strip away the bells and whistles, and you’re left to consider the lighting and texture more than you might in a colour photograph. Black and white photos also feel a bit separated from the reality of colour, and that resonates with me as I often myself feel pretty separated from reality.”

His reality mirrors the collective experience with monochrome images of friends, his lover, and flowers. Each of us can see a piece of ourselves in his work, a piece of our lives. There’s solace in having your own intimate moments reflected back to you on the walls of an art gallery. 

While creativity and art are a source of comfort, there has been a marked shift in the way people seek to connect through creating. The desire for authenticity is more heightened than ever, but the pressure to create is still there. Audia himself has felt this pressure to be constantly producing and has been unlearning that conditioning. He is also no stranger to the ebbs and flows that is the nature of creativity:

“Creativity and art-making seem like something that just inherently has its cycles of ups and downs. Like many other aspects of life—in this time—, I think it has created a pressure cooker and an amplification of routines and cycles that were already in place. My creative and work bursts have been more intense than ever, and my off days have been more sluggish and unproductive than they have ever been.”

The resulting work from this particular cycle of ups and downs is an exhibition well worth leaving the house for and might just be a salve to the disconnection many of us have been experiencing. 

20/2020 is open for viewing, appointment only from Friday, April 23rd to Sunday, April 25th at The James Black Gallery.