On the Cover (Making the Image) – Cassandra Jones

My name is Cassandra. I am an artist, a recordkeeper, a storyteller, a legacy-preserver, and a voice for whoever needs one.

Taking beautiful photos has never been enough. I was born to tell the stories of humanity through art. Somewhere, nestled in the collective of our shared experiences lies the universality of our voice. I believe that giving that voice a visual representation helps people around the world understand it and provokes positive social change.

Love and Rage was inspired by my life as a woman and a young single mother. It is the story of millions…. dare I say even billions of women and girls around the world. Every item on the sack she is carrying tells a story, as do all the items beneath the surface that you cannot see. The image represents the enormous weight women carry day in and day out and the grace with which they carry it… as well as the sel flessness of a mother’s love for her children. If they are lucky, the children don’t know the true weight in their mother’s pack. I never created the image with the intention of dissecting it for its viewers. The multitude of meanings found within every fold and every word are for you to interpret and find meaning in.

The Technical This is a single image capture.

suspended just off the floor. The ropes were cinched together with clips and used to stabilize the height of the items on the sack. All the larger items were wired directly to the ropes and the smaller items were wired to the larger ones. It was important to have everything fixed in place to keep mom and baby safe. Once I had everything safely fixed in place, all mom had to do was kneel down on the floor and slip her arms into the straps on the sack. Fun Facts: I photographed this set up THREE times to get it perfect! The first time, I did not have the sack mounted from the ceiling and it looked like a hot mess. In the second attempt, I wanted more connection in her expression and body language, so I asked her to come back a third time. I added the jar of thread in the third round and got the perfect moment from mom and baby. The website on the laptop was created from scratch and printed out to avoid a reflection on the screen. I also used a cell phone photo of my own stomach. The name of the woman on the Past Due notice is Emma Dreaming. She lives on Meager Street. The book spines include, Little Women, Race Against Time, Hard Times, and Agents of Repression. The all came from my personal collection and I got permission from all the publishers to use the books in this shoot.