Jennifer Bishop (photojournalist)
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Jennifer Bishop | |
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| Born | May 1, 1957 Cleveland, Ohio, USA[1] |
| Education | Phillips Academy (1975) |
| Alma mater | Johns Hopkins University B.A. 1979[2] |
| Awards | Maryland State Arts Council Awards (2018, 2012, 1993, 1989)[3][4] TASH Positive Images award (2011)[5] |
| Website | jenniferbishopphotography |
Jennifer Bishop is an American photojournalist based in Baltimore who is notable for her street photography.[2][7][8][9][10][1][11][12] She was one of the founders of the alternative weekly Baltimore City Paper when it began publishing in 1977,[13] and she contributed photographs consistently to the publication from its inception to 1994.[7] She was given her own space, choosing pictures which were "unfettered by second-guessing editors", in which she often recorded "the quirky moments, sudden epiphanies, visual paradoxes and poetic ironies that define the strangeness of everyday life", often of "gritty inner-city neighborhoods."[1]
Bishop contributed photographs to the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore News-American, The Washington Post magazine, Health magazine, People magazine, USA Today and other publications.[7][8][9][1][11][14] In addition to her commercial work for foundations and advertising agencies and institutions, including hospitals with a focus on children and medicine, much of her career has been devoted to chronicling the city of Baltimore.[3] Her work often focuses on advocacy for people with disabilities.[5][13] In 2006, she started Maryland's first Heart Gallery, a photo exhibit to promote the adoption of children with special needs.[14][10][13]
According to the magazine Baltimore Fishbowl, Bishop's documentary style is "quirky and deeply humanistic" with a "compassionate knack for capturing people" in "circumstance-revealing moments."[7] According to Glenn McNatt of the Baltimore Sun, she has an "immensely sensitive antenna for the emotional emanations of ordinary people, conveying the mystery and wonder of everyday life."[1] Critic Michael Olesker wrote that Bishop "denies us cheap sentimentality" and that her pictures offer "wry ironies that look unsettlingly like the truth."[12]
Bishop shot many of her photos on Tri-X film with a minimum of equipment, usually in black and white.[1] Since 2004, she employs color digital photography, shooting with a Nikon mirrorless Z series camera, sometimes converting her images to black and white.[2]
Bishop was born in Cleveland and grew up in Tyringham, Massachusetts.