J.A. Young (b.1986) is a trans, autistic, experimental mixed media artist and photographer based in the American South.
In 2025, she was selected as the OD Prize Grand Prize Winner, a Fresh Eyes x Hungry Eye Talent Award Winner, and her debut solo monograph was shortlisted for the Les Rencontres d’Arles Author Book Award. That same year, she was also selected as a Lucie Foundation Scholarship Finalist, an InCadaqués Photography Festival Runner-Up, and was Shortlisted / Highly Commended by the Belfast Photo Festival.
Young’s research-based practice draws on a range of influences (e.g., cultural anthropology, world mysticism, and the occult) to critically engage contemporary socio-political and ecological issues. Thematically, Young’s work explores how humanity has abused its own technological innovations to seize control of an entire planet: from the cultivation of fire to the advent of agriculture, all the way to the nuclear era and the age of the internet.
The final output of Young’s process consists of unique and limited edition works on paper. Each piece belongs to an ongoing, ever-evolving body of work that Young divides into distinct phases or series — the first two of which are titled Of Fire, Far Shining (2023-2024) and Angels (2024-present).
