Artist bio
Jennifer Blau is interested in the intersection of art, psychology and documentary photography. Exploring story, identity and the emotional landscape, she challenges preconceptions about who we are as people, seeking to encourage understanding and a shared sense of humanity.
Jennifer has Masters degrees in Documentary Photography (SCA 2012) and Art Therapy (WSU 2017).
In 2022, Jennifer was a winner in the British Journal of Photography’s Female in Focus award, a finalist in the Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women and awarded third place in Capture’s Australasia’s Top Ten Emerging Portrait Photographers. Her work has also been included in the National Photographic Portrait Prize (2021), Head On Photo Awards (2021), Loud and Luminous (2020), Head On Portrait Prize (2013), Moran Photographic Portrait Prize (2012) and Sydney Life (2012).
In 2013 she co-exhibited Acknowledged: Sydney’s Homeless at the State Library of NSW. In recent years, she has held several exhibitions in Sydney’s Head On Photo Festival, including featured exhibition Patricia’s Room (2021) Just Ask Me How I Feel (2017), See More Janes: After Midnight (2013) and Their Space (2012).
Jennifer’s photography has been featured in The Guardian, Marie Claire, Capture, Better Photography and other publications.
Jennifer is the author of The 50 Book: Women Celebrate Life (Captain Honey, 2013) a photographic trade book exploring women over fifty. Her recent photobook Patricia’s Room was included in Momento Pro’s ‘Best of 2020 Photobooks’.
After many years working as a senior editor in illustrated books and photo editor for several major publishing companies, Jennifer now offers a personalised portrait experience to a range of clients.
Jennifer is also a registered art therapist with a Master of Art Therapy, with Distinction (WSU, 2017). Her photographic work is informed by her interest in art therapy, such as ways in which we might convey embodied experience without words. In turn, she draws upon photography to offer new ways of working in art therapy.
Jennifer lives on Cammeraygal land in Sydney, Australia.
Awards
2023 Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize, Finalist
2023 Burwood Art Prize, Finalist
2022 Female in Focus 2022, British Journal of Photography/1854, Winner
2022 Maggie Diaz Photographic Prize for Women, Finalist
2022 Capture magazine, Top Ten Emerging Photographers (Portrait) Award
2021 Head On Portrait Prize, Semifinalist
2021 Living Memory: National Photographic Portrait Prize, Finalist
2020 'Best of 2020 Photobooks’, MomentoPro
2020 Loud and Luminous, Finalist
2020 The Aperture Club, Finalist
2019 The Aperture Club, Finalist
2013 Head On Photo Festival, Portraiture prize, Finalist
2012 Moran Photographic Prize, Semi-finalist
2012 Moran Photographic Prize, Semi-finalist
2012 Art & About competition, 'Sydney Life' Finalist
2010 The Shutterbug Award, Second place - Series, Finalist
Exhibitions
2023 Female in Focus 2022, British Journal of Photography, Bridge and Tunnel Gallery, New York
2023 Patricia’s Room, Randwick City Library - Bowen Library, Maroubra
2023 Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize, Manly Art Gallery
2023 Burwood Art Prize, Burwood Library, Burwood
2022 Female in Focus 2022, British Journal of Photography, Photofusion, London
2022 After Midnight: The Face of Fifty, Randwick City Library -Bowen Library, Maroubra
2022 Maggie Diaz Photogaphy Prize for Women, Brightspace, Melbourne
2021 Patricia’s Room, Head On Photo Festival, Bondi Beach, Sydney
2021 Living Memory, National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
2021 Equality, Loud and Luminous, Pop Gallery, Griffith University, Brisbane
2021 I heard a wind, Contact Sheet, St Leonards
2019 Sur L’Age, Projection at Arles Photo Festival, Arles, France
2019 Sanctuary, Lou's Place, Kings Cross
2017 Just Ask Me How I Feel, Manly Library, Head On Photo Festival
2013 Acknowledged: Sydney's Homeless, State Library of NSW
2013 See More Janes: After Midnight, Depot II Gallery, Alexandria, Head On Photo Festival
2012 After Midnight: The Face of Fifty, Sydney College of the Arts, Rozelle
2012 Their Space: The Teenage Bedroom, Leichhardt Library, Head On Photo Festival
2011 Tree of Life exhibition, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards
2011 Discovering Country National Parks of NSW exhibition, The Rocks Discovery Museum, Sydney
2011 Discovering Country Sydney Harbour exhibition, The Rocks Discovery Museum, Sydney
2010 Discovering Country Currango exhibition, The Rocks Discovery Museum, Sydney
2010 Shutterbug Exhibition, The Chauvel Cinema, Paddington
Books/Published work
Silent Protest - image included in Women Photographer’s Australia Everyday Climate Crisis visual petition, Marie Claire, May 2023
Patricia’s Room (article) Better Photography magazine, September, 2021
Patricia’s Room photobook, Momento Pro, 2020
The 50 Book:Women Celebrate Life (Captain Honey, 2013, ISBN 9780987426017).
After Midnight: The Face of Fifty, Blurb Books
The Unseen: Face of Homelessness, Blurb Books
Interviews/Press
A portrait of dementia: Patricia’s Room, Arts Health Network NSW-ACT, January 2022
Patricia’s Room, Photojournalism Now, 26 November, 2021
Patricia’s Room: A loving tribute defying the invisibility of living with dementia, The Guardian, 26 September 2021
Inside Patricia’s Room, Podcast, The Shot podcast, Episode Seven, 2021
Behind the photographer’s lens, Interview, Way Ahead Mental Health Association, 2017
The 50 Book, Book Reviews Feature, Photojournalism Now, Alison Stieven Taylor, 2014
Education
Master of Art Therapy (Distinction), Western Sydney University, 2017
Master of Documentary Photography, Sydney College of the Arts, 2012
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology and Communication, Macquarie University