JONA FRANK
“Tony training”. Wirral Club 2012
16” X 20” ARCHIVAL PIGMENT EDITION PRINT
$1200
“ALEX training”. Wirral Club 2012
16” X 20” ARCHIVAL PIGMENT EDITION PRINT
$1200
“MODEL HOME”
12” X 18” ARCHIVAL PRINT UNFRAMED SIGNED BY ARTIST
$1200
“Ground the Absurd image by being completely authentic.”
-David Lynch to Laura Dern.
1:12 Miniature House created for “Cherry Hill” A ChildHood Reimagined -Jona Frank (2020)
ABOUT JONA FRANK.
“This is part of a series called The Modern Kids. He’s a boxer from a boxing club outside Liverpool, England. I did an extended stint in the U.K. A good friend was showing me around. We went to some high schools, and then he took me to the boxing club. I was immediatelygripped by the whole atmosphere of it. I loved the graphic of the red-and-white wall and thought: this would be a great place to make pictures. And I just loved their faces. I became attached to many of the boys who were part of the club. I returned a couple of times over a three-year period, so I have pictures of Tony as he ages, I got to know him pretty well.”
That’s Jona Frank on “Tony. Training. Wirral Club,” in which little Tony’s eyes glint with kindness, curiosity, and bewilderment. You can almost feel him trying to shake off the scared kid and step into the confident adolescent. He could be sizing up a fierce opponent—or wooing his seventh-grade girl crush. “Adolescence is a chance to explore your identity, to try on different roles,” says Jona. “It’s a huge period of discovery.”
Jona’s fascination with coming of age has, in many ways, facilitated her own coming of age. Raised in suburban New Jersey, her mother an adherent of Catholicism and strict gender roles, Jona discovered photography in high school. As her desire to make great pictures grew, so did her determination to construct a life on her own terms. She plunges deep into this in her words/photo memoir “Cherry Hill: A Childhood Reimagined.” Says Jona, “Shooting ‘Cherry Hill’ made me realize that my own coming of age was hard. I was conforming to what my family wanted me to do, and I didn’t feel comfortable in myself. That led me to writing the book.”
Jona’s work is held in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “Cherry Hill” was published in 2020. “That took my work in a whole new direction,” says Jona. “Now I’m exploring stories about growing up female, and what it is to live as a female in 2022. I’m interested in telling stories about the challenges of being female, being a creative person, and being a mother in the world. My work has become much more reflective.”
— Jaimie Brisick 2022