Octavia Sharp

Octavia Sharp started taking pictures at the age of 15 with a Pentax K1000 cutting her teeth as a photographer on the high school newspaper. She went on to study photography a the Atlanta College of Art, then after three years working in a local lab in Atlanta, went back to school to gain her MFA (again in photography) at the University of Memphis from 1997-2000. Since then photography has fluttered in and out of her life, sometimes taking a backseat to other fleeting interests, sometimes to the daily responsibilities of life itself. Then in 2020 came the pandemic. Desperately needing to find some sort of joy within all the craziness, she decided it was time to dust off her trusty Hasselblad and get back to seeking solitude in a project started many moons ago, the interiors of mausoleums.

By definition, a mausoleum is a large above-ground entombment of the deceased or a gloomy building. However, upon closer inspection of such structures, you’ll find the architecture is as diverse and complex as the individuals they commemorate. Many are far from gloomy. The mausoleum featured in this piece is bright, colorful, and vibrantly alive. Comprising three levels, each with its own color scheme, this mausoleum resembles a fancy hotel lobby adorned with vintage furniture and an array of colorful lamps. These nine images were captured on color negative film. By employing long exposures and allowing for color shifts, the cool light filtering through stained-glass windows blends with the warm glow of lightbulbs, resulting in an unexpected palette that enhances the dynamic quality of the images.