Paige Young V. 2
- Editor at Titan Contemporary Publishing
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Paige Young is an analogue photographer who has exhibited across the United States and Europe. Recent exhibitions include The Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Florence Biennale, O’Hanlan Center for the Arts in Mill Valley, California, and Goddess Arts Gallery in KunstMatrix, Denmark. She has served as a juror for multiple exhibitions in Michigan and her awards include Influential Women Recognition by Influentialwomen.com, NYWeekly’s Top 30 Female Disruptors of 2025 to Watch For, and multiple scholarships from Kendall College of Art & Design.
For this particular essay, we will be discussing two specific series of works which tie into each other: My Life in a Prescription Bottle and Broke Tape series. Using analogue technologies in both sets of works, the conceptual approach is the autobiographical struggle, trauma, dependency, and memory loss from the medications Paige Young takes. Dealing with manic depression and anxiety, the artist portrays herself in a sequence of photographs in My Life in a Prescription Bottle, which is captured on 35mm film with an orange-tint filter. Through this filter and lens, we find self-portraits of the figure seemingly struggling and slouching around the house. From curling up on a messy bed to sitting in a dilapidated posture at her computer desk to lying helplessly on the floor in pajamas, the work entails the nihilism of living in a medicated state. The final series of the photographs reveals Paige Young finally pulling herself together as she ominously peers out the window as if searching for a deeper meaning and purpose, with the final photograph depicts her sipping on a hot cup of tea in her kitchen for comfort.
When we study My Life in a Prescription Bottle, we will notice the figure is acting an actual state of mind and lingering around an atmospheric sfumato of orange mist in the air. The orange tint seems to represent the lingering illness which haunts the artist as well as anyone else suffering from a debilitating mental or physical illness. In the grainy analogue photography, the entry of light against the orange screening of the composition leaves a yellowish-orange smear spotlighting the figure against the engulfing dark orange, with the shadows seemingly reflecting similar tones to vintage photography. The theatrical presentation and naturalistic modeling reveals a psychological portrait infused with atmospheric tension, as if the room was slowly swallowing up the figure whole. Similarly, Broke Tape series deals with comparable themes but through different methods and techniques. Through prints of vintage family photography, the portraits become smeared by loose film from VHS tapes. The connotation being VHS cassettes as being obsolete technology due to the film being susceptible to damage by light and dust over the years, making many of them unplayable to this day. Through various sprawling of the flimsy tape, the images become mostly blocked with only hints of figures being revealed, reflecting a loss of memory and fleeting moments rapidly moving past us before we can fully reflect on our past experiences.
My Life in a Prescription Bottle V. 2 (pictured above) reveals the artist comfortably numb on a sofa as soft yellow-orange light gently illuminates her body. The rest of the composition is surrounded by darkness and she lays fragile on the couch as if she is a figure from classical literature or history, such as Ophelia or Cleopatra awaiting one’s demise. Through ominous foreshadowing, the figure appears to be reflecting on her own mortality and fragile state of conflicted internal battles along with the struggles of sedation through medication.
Broke Tape and My Life in a Prescription Bottle shape dignity to what would otherwise be a state of stigma and shame when exposed to the public. The artist revealing her struggles with memory loss, sedation, and over-reliance on medication conveys a state of nihilism, unable to fully appreciate moments in naturality. These artworks do not communicate a gratitude towards medication but rather the morbidity of living in a medicated state being almost as unbearable as the treated mental illness. In the orange tints and loose film of her composition, Paige Young uses the art of raw film to convey a state of edginess and granulated atmosphere as well as a reflection on memory as well as the past. Through poignant narrative using analogue techniques and theatrical presentations reflecting psychology, Paige Young invokes the nihilism of altered states of mind seemingly unable to hold grip of the past.
