Features
Featured New Artist: Jenn Ackerman
Based in Virginia, Jenn Ackerman is completing her Master’s in photography from Ohio University. She graduates in June 2008. “I actually picked up my first camera after critiquing images and their effectiveness during my undergrad. I produced a one-year research project on stereotypes in images and in doing so, I discovered the power of an image and quickly became enthralled with its storytelling abilities. After graduating, I entered the journalism field because of my interest in investigative journalism as a research editor. After a couple of years learning how to tell written stories, I traveled and studied photojournalism at The Danish School of Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark. I have a great excitement for storytelling in any form and believe it is a great honor and privilege to share the stories of people who otherwise might not be heard,” Ackerman explains.
She adds that her focus is, “…on content and moments and love (which brings) a viewer into an intimate setting. I tend to tackle stories that have social or cultural significance in hopes of opening a discussion about the issue. My last couple of projects have dealt with mental illness, HIV & AIDS, coal mining and poverty. I also tend to see my images in black and white because I want the viewer to be consumed with the content more than anything. I guess this is because I believe when a photographer makes you feel something with an image you can no longer forget it exists.”
For her recent project Ackerman photographed the Correctional Psychiatric Treatment Unit inside the Kentucky State Reformatory. “The continuous withdrawal of mental health funding has turned jails and prisons across the nation into the default mental health facilities. The system designed for security is now trapped with treating mental illness and the mentally ill are often trapped inside the system with nowhere else to go. I wanted to take a big issue like the mental health crisis in America and give it some context by showing what prisons and what many people with mental illness are now faced with,” Ackerman states.
Ackerman concludes that, “my intention was to produce work that made the viewer feel what I felt when I was there. There were days that I was extremely scared and others that I left thinking how much someone on the outside missed them. Some days, I had to remind myself that many of these men had done heinous things. I saw them cry. I saw them hit themselves so hard in the head that they bled. I saw them throw things at the officers. I left the prison feeling the same way the warden and the doctors do - wanting to help these men that have nowhere else to go but feeling helpless. All I could do was make a piece that brings others in and hopefully makes them feel for these men, the doctors, the warden and the issue at large. There needs to be a shift in the way our society sees mental illness and I am hoping this project starts a dialog.
Ackerman has recently won awards in the National Press Photographer’s Association Best of Photojournalism and the White House News Photographer’s Association competitions.
Web: JennAckerman.com
Jenn Ackerman is this week’s Featured New Artist from our friends at Aurora Photos. Aurora’s staff regularly seeks out new, up and coming photographers to highlight on abouttheimage.com. We hope our readers will enjoy learning about these young pro-photographers and seeing examples of their outstanding work. Photographers who would like to be considered for publication as a Featured New Artist can submit their resume and portfolio by email to fna [at] abouttheimage.com.
Posted in: Featured New Artists, Features, Interviews, Photographers
