JILLIAN EDELSTEIN
Latest News:
Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that your proposal has been accepted for presentation in the Women of Photography International Women’s Day Conference-a-thon on March 8, 2025.
Your work stood out among many impressive submissions, and we believe it will make a significant contribution to the program, and to furthering the discussion of women in photography worldwide.
We look forward to the engaging discussions your work will inspire. And we are excited to welcome you to the Women of Photography International Women’s Day Conference-a-thon!
Kris Belden-Adams and Rose Teanby
Co-Organizers of the 2025 IWD Women of Photography Conference-a-Thon
My book Here and There: An Expedition of Sorts was printed with GOST Publishers at EBS Printers in October 2023.
The book was launched in the UK on the 25th January.
The launch event/party took place on 6th February at 7pm Reference Point 2 Arundel St, Temple, London WC2R 3DA including a Q&A with the novelist Esther Freud.
Advance copies were seen at PARIS PHOTO in November 2023, part of the Artists Series Talks organised by Marc Fuestel. There is another launch at The Photographers Gallery on the 9TH May 6-8pm. Book signing at Photo London on 18th May at 2pm.
I will be working on a solo retrospective exhibition with the curator Tracy Marshall Grant to be held in 2025. A talk was held & selects from my Truth and Lies series were shown at Photo North Festival in Leeds, 12-14 April 2024, as I did for The Northern Eye International Photography Festival in Colwyn Bay, North Wales in October 2023
Our feature documentary The Water Rats has won three Impact Film Awards for Originality, Creativity and Feature Doc award - there was another screening on the 11th December at the Lexi Cinema.
Greig Coetzee, editor, has created a FaceBook page for The Water Rats doc, you can see the trailer here:
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=WATER%20RATS%20TRAILER
Water Rats Documentary Film
https://thelexicinema.co.uk/TheLexiCinema.dll/WhatsOn?f=6477568
Next Water Rats Screenings at the Lexi Cinema will be 19th June 2024
Following screenings, March 2023
Life Eternal – Nobel Prize Museum at Liljevalchs - this exhibition will travel to Värmlands Museum Karlstad 16 maj 2024 – 6 januari 2025.
On 1 October, the Nobel Prize Museum’s new exhibition entitled Life Eternal will open at Liljevalchs art gallery in Stockholm. The exhibition – which brings together science, art and cultural history – shows different approaches to eternity, explores the crucial issues of our era and offers hope for the future.
The following artists are providing works for the exhibition:
Anna Dumitriu, Andrea Galvani, Ann Lislegaard, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Christian Partos, Dana Sederowsky, Éva Mag, Fredrik Paulsen, Jillian Edelstein, Jone Kvie, Julian Charrière, Laura Splan, Mark Dion, Mats Hjelm, Moa Israelsson, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Petra Lindholm, Rineke Dijkstra, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Ulla Wiggen, William Kentridge, Ylva Carlgren, ARTECHOUSE and a joint work by John Wynne and Tim Wainwright.
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July 2022 Impact DOCS Film Awards
Greig Coetzee and Jillian Edelstein (United Kingdom), The Water Rats
Award of Merit: Documentary Feature
Award of Merit: Creativity / Originality
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Image of John Hajdu and Teddy shortlisted Portrait of Humanity Award in British Journal of Photography
Runner Up in Series on Portrait Category (Pro).17th Julia Margaret Cameron Award
This image was also part of the exhibition Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors, which opened at the Royal Photographic Society Gallery in Bristol on 27 January-27 March 2022, marking Holocaust Memorial Day, bringing together over 50 contemporary portraits of Holocaust survivors and their families. The exhibition was created in partnership with the Imperial War Museum, Jewish News, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, and supported by Dangoor Education.
Uri Winterstein from the exhibition "Holocaust Survivors" is among the photographs selected as part of the 2021 edition of the British Journal of Photography's Portrait of Humanity.
The exhibition was shared on social media as well as on JCDecaux posters all across London in 2022.
The Duchess of Cambridge officially opens "Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors,"
currently on display at the Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum on Wednesday... Just as I was about to go up to the Gallery to meet with the Duchess of Cambridge alongside the Survivor, John Hajdu and his Teddy, I learnt that the series I photographed as part of the Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors was runner up in the portrait section of the 17th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards.
Artefacts from the Affinities Series (vintage prints, letters, facsimiles, postcards, Polaroids) displayed in two cabinets at the Grange Gallery & Museum, Rottingdean, as part of the Object Artefact Photograph exhibition, on display until 21 November 2021. Visit the Object Artefact Photograph-dedicated website here.
Check out Jillian's lockdown series
"Behind the Colorama" now on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAKMfTAvMpc
Picture Britain: Our Poverty, Our People
This new photography exhibition, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Comic Relief, celebrates the strength and resilience of people swept into poverty. It features a collection of over 20 portraits and stories from across the country, in collaboration with journalist Stephen Armstrong. Jillian asked each participant, "what is the one thing you could not live without?". Read more here.
'My Brilliant Friend'
for the National Theatre
Jillian Edelstein shoots "Me, You and Those Who Came Before" in association with Counterpoints Arts. These images will be exhibited at The Tate Exchange and V&A. Read more about this project on The Guardian.
209 WOMEN
Tulip Siddiq MP for Kilburn and Hampstead photographed for 209 Women-209 MP's photographed by 209 women photographers, opens at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool from 28 February-14 April.
Solo exhibition in Cape Town, South Africa
28th October
Pleased to be one of the women exhibiting in Parliament, Portcullis house. Portraits of 209 female MPs have gone on show, all captured exclusively by female photographers.
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A Q&A for Apple Distinguished Educators (ADE) in Amsterdam. ADE is a programme to recognise primary, secondary and higher education pioneers who are using Apple technology to transform teaching and learning.
Incredibly proud to be one of Royal Photographic Society's 'Heroic Hundred' , an international campaign initiated by The Royal Photographic Society to highlight inspirational women in photography.
Speaking about the selection process, jury chair Rut Blees Luxemburg said: “The process of looking at the work of over 1000’s of photographers was incredibly stimulating and inspiring for the jury. It opened up so many new avenues of understanding in contemporary photography practices. The selection of a Hundred Heroines reflects a much larger community of female photographers, those chosen to salute and embody this community are emblematic for their inspiration, advocacy and pioneering spirit.”
Interview with BBC Afaq, a programme on BBC Arabic TV dealing with various cultural and arts subjects including theatre, cinema
Searching for Great Aunt Minna, is a narrative that takes in a personal story and one which comes full circle to the refugee story of today.
The crowd fund went live on UnBound Publishers today - it has text and photographs which makes it expensive to print and design.
the link is here…https://unbound.com/books/here-and-there
I will happily, gratefully and enthusiastically welcome any contribution towards making this happen.
If you could pass it on to anyone who may pledge, that would be beautiful.
If you do put something in then your name will be in the book -
plus you get a copy of the book,
there are various tiers of pledges - all evident in the link below.
Thank you SO much for helping to make this happen.
Jillian Edelstein, Athol Fugard, National Theatre, collection National Portrait Gallery
Cover of The Royal Photographic Society Journal today
Honoured to be a finalist and for an image which is part of a new project started in January and ongoing. Thanks to all the young men who have agreed to be part of it.
In conversation with Liz Jobey of The FT Weekend Magazine.
Taken at my talk 'Searching for Great Aunt Minna at The Tate. Searching for Great Aunt Minna was inspired by a photograph and a commissioned photo essay for the London Sunday Times Magazine about the Sangoma, the traditional healers, (shamans) who are called by their Ancestors to heal.
Pleased to be one of this years Latin American Fotografia winners. Above is my photo of Claudia Velasquez (right) and friends -coffee farmers in Chiapas Mexico. Traditional practices are used to grow the beans high in the mountains under the shade of lush, tropical rainforest - this prolongs ripening, rendering rich blends known as Tanim de Chiapas - the "heart" of Chiapas.
Talk in my room at The National Portrait Gallery about creating the work for the book and exhibition 'Road to 2012: Aiming High'
Jillian Edelstein for The Guardian: I can recall the moment when Nelson Mandela tried to grab my light meter as I was preparing to photograph him, because he did not know what it was. I remember that he apologised and put it down to the fact that he was "just a country bumpkin". I will never forget the atmosphere, light, mood, location, decor and people who were present. The camera in my hand served to focus my every senses. It always does.
In a news broadcast this week, I watched a woman in the middle of a street in Soweto pan her iPad across the crowd. I didn't see a connection with the event, I saw her simply recording it. That's the difference. It's image taking rather than image making. And I think that's what Dr Henkel is endeavouring to address. Read more
By Rupert Christiansen for The Telegraph: Celebrity photographic portraiture is wildly popular, and I sometimes feel that people are suckers for any old snap of someone famous. But within this over-worked genre, Jillian Edelstein's work is exceptional. Born in South Africa, with an intense interest in the politics of that nation, she was a social worker and photojournalist before coming to London in 1983 and setting up as a freelance portraitist. Her past experience tells: there's more to her work than glamour.
The National Portrait Gallery is currently showing a small retrospective of her prints, and they're not to be missed. Charged with a rare spontaneity, compositional sense and psychological acuteness, they are several cuts above the run of slick Avedon and Leibovitz imitations.
Among much else, there's a wonderful image of Blur, hunched over fags and coffee, their egos visibly clashing; a close look at Nelson Mandela which hints at the sadness behind his cheerful veneer; and a brilliantly witty double portrait of Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope embodying all the playful politics of a balletic partnership.
Acting as the chair of specialized portraits for World Press Photo 2014. The photo of the year has a magical quality to it and I believe it brings to mind so many issues of the day in the most subtle and poetic way that it will produce a new language in order to illustrate stories that matter in the world. '
I joined forces with FXB International to capture the stories of hope from the people affected by FXB's work. Embarking on a unique photographic expedition, I visted over 20 FXBVillage programmes across India, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, Colombia and China.
'I dont make people laugh or smile when I am photographing them, I usually much prefer to photograph people as they present themselves to me.' On my return, I selected 25 images to display at the OXO Gallery on London’s iconic Southbank.