Jessie McInroy

Chewing cud; certain animals repetitively bring partially digested food back up from their stomachs to re chew it. It is also the term for returning to something repeatedly in order to digest it. There is something both nourishing and corrosive in this cycle. Thoughts are processed and understood, but for me, they begin to turn sour through repetition. My work exists within a compulsion to revisit moments and feelings until different meanings emerge, even when that process risks collapsing into self-consciousness and doubt.

Photography and writing are two mediums that challenge me precisely because of how accessible and saturated they have become. In a digital age where images and words are produced endlessly and instantly, I often question what it means to contribute my own voice. Photography, in particular, exists in a culture where everyone carries a camera and every moment seems documented already. Writing can feel similarly exposed as another attempt to add personal thoughts into an already overwhelming stream of expression. As someone who inherently overthinks, this awareness becomes part of my practice itself. I find myself asking: who am I to believe my perspective deserves to be seen, read, or shared?

Rather than resolving these doubts, my practice lives within them. The act of making photographs and writing becomes a form of chewing cud itself: revisiting experiences repeatedly, testing their emotional residue, and sitting with the discomfort of uncertainty. My work is far from certainty and more about documenting the fragile and often uncomfortable process of trying to understand oneself within a world saturated by images, language, and constant noise.