Jennifer Pattison

Bio

Jennifer Pattison's portraits are arresting and full of unselfconscious expression.
Rooted in portraiture her work shines a light on female experience and is currently exploring mothering.
Jennifer is a British photographer based in East Sussex. Her work is produced using medium format analogue film and has been published in the Financial Times Magazine & newspaper, The Guardian, hello magazine, Tatler, i-D, Vogue India, Port Magazine, Oh Comely, It's Nice That, and the British Journal of Photography among others.
Jennifer has received numerous international awards and artist residencies for her work; exhibited at fairs Inc. Photo London and Art Rio. In 2022 she was selected for the inaugural Trace Mentorship Programme, shortlisted for the Dentons 8th Art Prize in 2019 and nominated for the Royal Photographic Society's Hundred Heroines. In 2017 she was commissioned to make new work funded by Arts Council England and British Council's Re-Imagine India cultural exchange programme; going on to tour the Punjab and exhibited in Blast Photo festival U.K. In 2014 invited by Brazilian collector Frances Reynolds to be an artist in residence at Instituto Inclusartiz, Rio de Janeiro. A portrait from her project In Sight of My Skin received the second prize in the prestigious Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at The National Portrait Gallery, London (2012) and won first prize at the International Photography Awards (Lucies, 2013). Her work is held in private collections globally.
She lecturers in photography, currently at The University for the Creative Arts Farnham.

Selected Exhibitions

-March 2023: Gender & Gesture, curated by Dr. Caroline Molloy, Foyer Gallery, UCA, Farnham, U.K
-March 2023: IWD Auction, Art On A Postcard, curated by Carrie Scott, London, U.K
-October 2022: Photo Fringe, Brighton, UK
-June 2019: Multistory's BlastPhotoFestival- Girl Gaze: Journeys Through the Punjab & the Black Country, UK. The British Muslim School, Lodge Road, West Bromwich, UK
-February 2019: 209 Women, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, U.K
-December 2018: 209 Women, Portcullis House, London, U.K
-September 2018: British Journal of Photography Portrait of Britain 2018
-May 2018: Photography on a Postcard, PhotoLondon, Somerset House, London, UK
-March 2018: Girl Gaze: Journeys Through the Punjab & the Black Country, UK, Lalit Kala Akademi, Chandigarh, India
-March 2018: Girl Gaze: Journeys Through the Punjab & the Black Country, UK, The Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar, India
-July 2017: Via, The Summer Exhibition, Francesca Maffeo Gallery, Leigh on Sea, UK
-April 2017: Una y Otra Espacio Eldorado, Bogota, Columbia
-June 2016: Anima, ThePrintspace, London, UK
-November 2015: Alpha, ThePrintspace, London, UK
-November 2015: Uncertain States, Mile End Pavillion, London, UK
-November 2015: M&C Saatchi, London, UK
-September 2015: Instituto Inclusartiz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
-May 2015: STARE, Labyrinth, London, UK
-December 2014: Salon14, Photofusion, London, UK
-April 2014: A Year In Development, Four Corners, London, UK
-February 2014: Mystery Portrait Postcards, The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
-July 2013: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, M-Shed, Bristol, UK
-February 2013: A Year In Development, Four Corners, London, UK
-January 2013: The Stare Show, Labyrinth, London, UK
-November 2012: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
-February 2012: A Year In Development, Four Corners, London, UK
-February 2012: Painted Faces In Front of The Moon, London, UK

Awards

-March 2023:Selected, Gender & Gesture exhibition Woxen University, Hyderabad, India
-March 2023: Shortlisted, EyeMama project, U.K
-May 2022: Selected as a mentee on the inaugural TRACE Mentorship Programme, UK.
-June 2019: Shortlisted artist, 8th Dentons Art Prize, London, U.K
-November 2018: nominated for the Royal Photographic Society Hundred Heroines
-September 2018: Winner, British Journal of Photography, Portrait of Britain 2018
-September 2014: Honorable mention, Lucies International Photography Awards, U.S
-April 2014: Shortlist, International Print Exhibition 157, Royal Photographic Society, U.K
-September 2013: First Prize Winner, Fine Art Nudes, Lucies International Photography Awards, U.S
-May 2013: Winner, Magenta FlashForward 2013, U.S
-November 2012: Second Prize Winner,Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK

Artist Talks/visiting lecturer

-February 2024 - Artist Talk with Carrie Scott, Shoreditch Arts Club, London, U.K
-January 2023 - part time lecturer, BA Photography, MFA Photography, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham
-January 2022 - part time lecturer, Film & Digital Arts, BA, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham
-October 2018-May 2019, part time lecturer, BA Photography, School of Art and Design, Coventry University
-February 2018: Artist talk, BA Photography, School of Art and Design, Coventry University
-Jan 2018: Artist talk, The body as canvas, BA Photography, University of the West of England
-Jan 2017: Artist talk & round table discussion, Francesca Maffeo Gallery Leigh on Sea
-Oct-Dec 2015: Visiting lecturer, BA Photography, School of Art and Design, Coventry University
-May 2015: Artist talk & panel discussion, The Royal Academy of Arts, London
-April 2014: Artist talk, BA Photography, University of the West of England
-January 2014: Artist talk, BA Photography, School of Art and Design, Coventry University
-November 2013: Artist talk, BA Photography, City College Brighton and Hove

In Sight Of My Skin is a series of nude portraits of women made after a ten-year absence from taking pictures.

The process of making this work took me on a highly personal journey. It provoked reflection and made me question why I was so interested in making portraits of women who appeared to have an ideal (in my mind) body shape. I was operating like a collector, gathering images of women I coveted.

Mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of us all?