Samantha Jensen (Creative Practice ’24) has released Desert Notes, a new photo book published by Makan, an independent publishing house dedicated to amplifying voices and visual narratives from the Global South, founded by ICP alum Ibi Ibrahim.The photobook, edited by Ibi Ibrahim and designed by Bastien Forato, features 162 images and is held in the collection of New York University Libraries.
Desert Notes retraces the route of the 19th-century Survey of the Colorado River of the West through portraiture, landscape, still life, and scanned journal entries from the artist's travels. Blending documentary and constructed approaches, the book foregrounds the tension between visibility and erasure, favoring close attention as a form of care and resistance. It is carefully sequenced and includes journal entries written during Jensen's drive through the American West, tracing her movement and offering insight into her process.
Order Desert Notes from Makan
Samantha Jensen is a Brooklyn-based artist from California whose practice spans photography and self-portraiture, drawing inspiration from figures such as Gina Pane, Carla Williams, and Hannah Wilke. Her work examines intimacy and fragility, the familial and the environmental, and the collision between personal and public histories, speaking to a sparing, sometimes removed view of intimacy, and the mirroring often found within relationships, either between individuals or the spaces they inhabit. Alongside her artistic practice, Jensen works as an art writer, contributing to publications including T Magazine MENA, GQ Middle East, and Impulse Magazine, where she has primarily profiled female artists across the region.
See more of Jensen’s work on her website: samanthakjensen.com
Images by Samantha Jensen
Samantha Jensen
