JILLIAN EDELSTEIN
Festival Speaker
London based Jillian Edelstein began working as a press photographer in Johannesburg, South Africa. She attended the LCC photojournalism course after graduating The University of Cape Town, B.Soc.Sc (Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology Social Work).
Whether she is documenting the lives of people from forgotten and marginalised communities, portraying celebrities, going through a personal journey, or reporting on a collective tragedy, Jillian Edelstein’s photography is always engaged, ethical, and brave; her approach is honest, hopeful, graceful, and unmistakable.
Laura ©Jillian Edelstein
Laura ©Jillian Edelstein
Jillian’s portraits have appeared internationally in publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The FT Weekend Magazine, Vanity Fair, Interview, Vogue, Port, The Guardian Weekend, The Sunday Times Magazine, Time, Fortune, Forbes, GQ and Esquire.
Her photographs have been exhibited internationally including the National Portrait Gallery, The Photographers' Gallery, The Royal Academy, OXO Gallery in London, Sothebys, Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in France, Bensusan Museum, Robben Island Museum in South Africa and Dali International Photography Festival, Yunnan Province, China.
She has received several awards including the Kodak UK Young Photographer of the Year, Photographers' Gallery Portrait Photographer of the Year Award, the Visa d’Or at the International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan in 1997, the European Final Art Polaroid Award in 1999, the John Kobal Book Award 2003 included in The Taylor Wessing Portrait Award twice, the AI-AP Archive in 2008 and 2015. A winner in Latin American Fotografia 4 2015, included in World Press Awards twice and a finalist in the 2017 LensCulture Portrait Awards. Jillian was voted on the ‘Hundred Heroines’ list of women from across the world who are transforming photography today. This was announced by The Royal Photographic Society on 14th December 2018.
Edelstein judged the World Press Awards 2014, and the Taylor Wessing Awards in 2010.
Between 1996 and 2002 she returned to South Africa frequently to document the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Having grown up in an apartheid country, and perhaps regardless, this was also a personal journey. Jillian’s award winning book Truth and Lies, shot on large format was published in 2002, winning the John Kobal Book Award. It represents a unique visual account of both the victims’ and the offenders’ stories.
Five perpetrators ©Jillian Edelstein
Alongside numerous personal projects, such as Affinities and Sangoma, she has worked on campaigns for Oxfam, FXB International, UNICEF, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC among others, and directed a film documentary about the screenwriter Norman Wexler.
Affinities: Darcy Bussell and Jonathan Cope © Jillian Edelstein
The most striking thing about Jillian’s work is the overlap between personal stories – her own, and the stories of others. Her work is an exceptional attempt to investigate and witness the complexity of migration and displacement, justice and forgiveness, inequality and poverty, and memory and loss through the lens of empathy, determination, and compassion. She gives voices to people who don’t have one and reveals the faces of those who are often invisible, simultaneously telling a part of our stories.
