Biography
Jay Patel grew up in Valsad, a southern coastal town of Gujarat in India but currently based in New Jersey. He is a freelance visual artist mostly working with photography in combination with text and audio occasionally. In 2016 he moved to the U.S. to pursue education in photography. Jay graduated from Creative Practices program at ICP New York in the summer of 2019. He has been working as a teaching assistant for Allen Frame’s seminar class at ICP for past six months along with his commercial freelance work.
Over the years his work has been about the experience of places and portraits of people in that setting. He looks for the intimacy of people in their private spaces. During his year at ICP he turned the lens onto his own life and worked on a personal project about water and swimming. His work ‘Diving into the unknown’ takes you through his commemoration of childhood experiences with water and a journey of overcoming fear. Driving to different lakes and beaches to search swimming holes became a part of practice to make photographs. His love for reading books and walking has influenced his style of work in a significant way. He completed the Eddie Adams Workshop in October 2020.