Finding hope in anxiety: Michelle prepares for PSC graduation show

As a returning student to Photography Studies College (PSC), independent photographic artist Michelle Jose is unveiling her abstract artwork and its themes of bringing a sense of hope through anxiety while exploring ways people can move through it.

Beginning from the young age of five, Ms Jose has always had an eye for photography.

She recalls looking through her nan’s old photo albums and feeling captivated by the different lighting and details despite the poor camera quality. 

However, it wasn’t until she received her first digital camera at the age of nine that Ms Jose started to develop her own sense of style.  

“I loved playing with the settings, I loved creating different realities with an image. I think it’s just been right from the very start that I’ve been captivated and inspired by photographs, and taking photos, and seeing what I can do.”

After completing Year 12 VCE, Ms Jose decided to pursue photography with the help of one of her high school teachers.

“What got me into photography was towards the end of my VCE … they had classes for photography, and I had a teacher who really pushed and inspired me to pursue it. She saw the potential in me,” she said.

“I got a little award from high school for my photo. She said I had a really keen eye for it, and I had all these wild ideas I really wanted to pursue.”

Ms Jose officially began her PSC studies in 2019 with the intention of doing a three-year bachelor course in photography. 

However, when COVID hit during her final year of study it created serious problems, resulting in her having to leave PSC.

“I got to 2021, which was my final year, and I was halfway through, but with how difficult COVID was, especially for my family, we decided to all move up to Brisbane, which meant I had to leave behind PSC,” she said.

But Ms Jose didn’t want to give up on her dream. For the past three years while living in Brisbane she tried different universities to study photography, however this left her with challenges.

“I was going to do some cross-institute study at the university in Brisbane, but discovered there is such a lack towards photography, especially in higher education,” she said.

Feeling that she couldn’t be provided with the same services as PSC, Ms Jose eventually moved back to Melbourne this year, picking up where she left off.

Now in her final semester, Ms Jose has been preparing her latest photographic artwork titled Between the Shards for the upcoming graduation showcase at PSC next month.

“It is centred around anxiety. I’m really captivated by it because I suffer from it myself and I’m always looking for ways of stretching the perception of it,” she said.

Rather than traditional practices of printing on paper, Ms Jose has chosen to print on satin and velvet fabrics and is presenting her photographs as hanging artworks.

“They are quite large so then when people experience this work it’s like they’re going in and out of that anxious state. I guess it’s to give people who do suffer from anxiety that intention of hope, and that there are ways out of it,” she said.

“It’s also educational for people who don’t have much of an idea of what it’s like to be in these extreme anxiety states … they never see the journey and struggle and the challenges of it. So, I’m creating work that’s the appeasement of anxiety…and I’m doing that in an abstractive contemporary style.”

Other photographic artworks of Ms Jose’s, including Pollen Fragment, are also currently on display at the PSC Salon in Southgate until November 3. •