Seawell, Jay Turner Frey

American, b. 1986

BiographyJay Turner Frey Seawell is a visual artist who makes films and images that consider history on the cultural, political, and personal level. He is especially interested in the architectural landscape of the United States and what those structures and spaces say about social understandings of power. Informed by his background in photojournalism, Seawell’s images maintain a documentary quality as they explore more abstract concepts of fragmentation and façade. “Photography is such an explicit medium,” he says. “How do you make pictures that simultaneously point to something but also deal in symbolism?”

Seawell explored this line of questioning in his photo series turned book titled National Trust (2013), which he made in Washington D.C. during the 2012 presidential election. With subjects ranging from historical architecture to political campaign events, the series takes a critical look at the aesthetic engineering of power and politics in the United States and the role of media in turning government into spectacle.

Jay Turner Frey Seawell received a BA in Journalism from Indiana University (2009) and an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (2013). Seawell received the Award for Innovation in the Documentary Arts from the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University in 2016. His documentary short Sand from Omaha Beach was selected for the Venice Shorts Film Fest (2021) and the Indie Shorts Awards Cannes (2022). His photographs have been exhibited at Aurora PhotoCenter, Indianapolis; Aperture Summer Open, New York; and Pingyao Photography Festival, China.