Tayla Nebesky is an American photographer based in Bristol, England. She studied trumpet performance at Manhattan School of Music before pursuing a Masters in photography at UWE Bristol. Recently shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Organisation Awards, she makes photographs of her surroundings in an observational and lyrical manner.
Blue Tongue is the result of Nebesky’s unexpected stay on her parents’ ranch in California. Having moved away more than ten years prior, this extended visit provided an opportunity to translate into imagery her observations of a place she knows intimately. A collection of landscapes, portraits, and still lifes, Blue Tongue allows the viewer to see her family home from a perspective of familiarity. Plays of light on different areas of the land and on local flora gives the series a sense of calm, while close-up shots of an animal’s rotting carcass, the flies on a horse’s back, and the shells of smashed eggs are a reminder of nature’s brutal tendencies. Her father is a recurring presence in the series and a pair of weathered hands, presumably his, become a motif of life on the ranch.
Seat at the Table
