Jenny Calivas, a photographer who trained at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, the International Center of Photography, and Yale, has developed a radically tactile approach to the medium. After earning her MFA in 2018, she created the series “Self-Portraits While Buried” (2019–2021), in which she submerges herself in sand and tidal mud on the Maine coast, using only her hand to operate the camera shutter. Unable to see her compositions, she relies on other senses—like the temperature of sand on her skin—to determine exposure. Her practice also incorporates performance, puppetry, dance, and a recent mail-art project with graphic designer Matt Wolff, inspired by her toddler’s hands-on eating.
This work matters because it challenges the historical representation of female bodies in landscape photography, drawing on ecofeminist thought to reclaim agency and embodiment. By making photography tactile and sensory, Calivas reconfigures the fundamentals of the medium, pushing it toward sculpture and performance. Her innovative methods—including collaboration with a graphic designer and participatory mail art—expand the boundaries of photographic practice, offering a model for how artists can break down and rebuild photography from the ground up.