Photo Poets: Rachel Yurkovich

Photographer Rachel Yurkovich, with her well-traveled perspective, highlights nooks of Cleveland that represent a microcosm of the macrocosm. The color, composition and framing remind you of the things you notice out of the corner of your eye. The shapes and patterns formed by the movement of life, and the settled debris from that movement.

Yurkovich was born in South Carolina but lived most of her developing years in Skopje, North Macedonia; and Prague, Czechia.

She received her bachelor of fine arts in sculpture and painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2014. With an interest in living things and their movement as a medium, her work often ends up as video. Rachel was granted the 2014 First Agnes Gund Traveling Award, which allowed her to travel to Chernobyl, Ukraine, for filming in the spring of 2016. Following this opportunity, Rachel’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Sculpture Center (Cleveland), Bruce Gallery (Edinboro, PA), the Cleveland Botanical Garden, and the Matthaei Botanical Gardens (Ann Arbor, MI). Her videos have also been featured in film festivals such as the Barcelona Planet Film Festival (Spain), The Berlin Flash Film Festival (Germany), and the Sandalia Sustainability Film Festival (Sassari, Italy). Currently residing in Cleveland, Rachel shares her life with her husband, son, dog, snake, and chickens while also working in Interactive Technology for the Cleveland Institute of Art.

rachelyurkovich.com

Q. How do you interpret the title, “Photo Poet?” –Aja

A. My photos/videos are more poetic than they are narrative. They focus on small instances or snapshots rather than telling a fuller story, allowing the viewer to have a more open interpretation. –Rachel