She Buried Herself in Sand to Reinvent Photography. It Worked.

Jenny Calivas spent high school building darkrooms and then trained at some of the most prestigious photo schools. But by the time she hit Yale for grad school, she was asking herself the big question: Is this still for me?

Turns out, she wanted to get her hands dirty. Literally. She was drawn to sculpture and performance, craving something more tactile than a lens and a shutter button.

Rethinking the Frame

So, she started experimenting. She climbed on darkroom counters, moved her body, and photographed her clay-covered hands. The goal? Make photography feel something.

After getting her MFA in 2018, Calivas decamped to Maine. That's where her breakthrough series, "Self-Portraits While Buried" (2019–2021), was born. Imagine: her almost entirely submerged in sand and tidal mud on her childhood shoreline. Often, only a single hand, clutching the camera's shutter release, peeks out.

These photos, she explains, were a way to challenge the historical depiction of women's bodies in landscapes — often linked too passively to nature. Calivas, who describes herself as "always physical," found a natural connection. "Once I connected that natural way of being with photography, it sparked my imagination," she said.

The images are primal, carrying a hint of humor even as they touch on dark teenage memories. But here's the kicker: Calivas couldn't see what she was shooting. Vision took a backseat to other senses. The temperature of the sand on her skin, for instance, became her guide. A sudden chill meant the sun had ducked behind a cloud, signaling a change in light. The photographic moment slowed down, becoming "a shifting of perception, a more entangled and embodied sort of agency."

The Squishier Options

Now, from a garage studio in Los Angeles, Calivas continues to "break photography down and build it back up." She pulls from her eclectic past — puppetry, dance, clowning, even singing in a punk band. Because apparently, that's where we are now.

Becoming a mother has only deepened her exploration of touch and the limits of the self. This led to a mail-art project with graphic designer Matt Wolff, inspired by her 1-year-old's delightfully messy eating habits. Calivas sent out postcards asking recipients to pick a food, listen to its aggressive handling sounds, write the results, then smear the food across the words, and finally, mail it.

As Calivas wrote on the card: "The world is hard. I am looking into squishier options."