On Rose | Laura Jaeger | Still Lit

Laura Jaeger

Still Lit

21x17

Artist Bio/Statement

Laura Jaeger is a Berkeley-based photographer whose work explores human connection, memory, and the quiet beauty of everyday life. Working in both film and digital photography, she is drawn to candid moments, subtle gestures, and the often-overlooked details that give a place its character.

A former educational researcher, Laura brings curiosity and a deep interest in people to her photographic practice. Since becoming a mother, she has become particularly interested in family life—the intimacy, tenderness, humor, and complexity of our closest relationships. She also finds inspiration in the rich diversity of people and places that shape the Bay Area. On Rose reflects this way of seeing: looking closely at the familiar and finding moments of connection, discovery, and beauty close to home.

Juror's Statement

I kept coming back to the stillness of this image—the saturated red, the glow of the light, and the feeling that something has just happened or is about to. A public bathroom is such an ordinary place, but it can also be a space of gathering, transformation, refuge, performance, and recognition. Through a queer lens, that feels especially resonant to me; the places where we find one another aren’t always the obvious ones. There’s something intimate and cinematic here. No one is pictured, yet the image feels deeply inhabited. The room feels empty, but not unoccupied.

Never a rose without a prick - All three of us were immediately drawn to this image. It feels both cinematic and deeply personal—a moment suspended somewhere between celebration, ritual, vulnerability, and performance. The color and light are lush, but it’s the gesture that keeps pulling you in: the hand across the face, the other reaching outward, the veil creating both spectacle and protection. It gives us enough to feel something without telling us exactly what to feel. That openness, and the mystery within it, is what made the image stay with us. - Sarah Deragon