Jennifer Johnson is a photographer and writer in Wilmington, NC. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally and published in magazines and on CD covers, and her writing has been published in magazines and literary journals. Jennifer has taught writing courses privately online as well as at Mars Hill College, Antioch MacGregor University, Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, and University of North Carolina Asheville College for Seniors. Her photographs are available for sale and licensing, and she is available for commissioned work for CD covers, book covers, etc. Please contact Jennifer for information regarding purchase of photographs or for local or international photography or writing assignments.
Jennifer is also a psychotherapist and meditation teacher and provides services by Skype internationally. For additional information, please contact Jennifer.
Artist Statement
My writing and photography practice is a contemporary inquiry into landscape, place, memory, narrative, and meaning. I work with writing and photography to give voice to unspoken stories in the interest of healing and social change.
I am fascinated by the relationship between photographs and language–the ways in which a photograph can elicit memories; the ways in which photographs inspire language or silence; the ways in which language inspires the creation of a photograph.
My photography is influenced by the theory of Carl Jung and Minor White, the concepts of synchronicity and the collective unconscious, Buddhist Psychology, and Insight/Mindfulness Meditation Practice. My writing is influenced by the work of Carole Maso, Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, Terry Tempest Williams, and Patricia Hampl. I write and make photographs because doing so sustains me. I approach writing and photography as meditation practices. I am deeply moved by the ways in which longing and desire inspire language and art. Both my writing and photography originate from a place of expressing authentic voice, and I strive to inspire others to become intimate with their own authentic voices as writers and artists.
My current work includes a fine art book, Where Language Fails, a complex weaving of photographs and text that probes deeply into the interstices of memory, land and place and explores the equivalence between fragments of narrative text and evocative landscape photographs. This work is based on a memoir in progress that investigates fragments of memory. Both of these works explore complicated issues of the mother daughter relationship, longing, and loss and reveal hidden truths in shards of memory. These impressions are echoed in the still life images of Inherited Objects.
Education and Training
MFA Goddard College 2007
MS Rehabilitation Counseling, Georgia State University 1996
MS Community Counseling, Georgia State University 1991
BA Psychology, Meredith College 1986
Publications
Feature: “The Value of a Vacation.” New Life Journal. June 2009.
“The Wreck,” “After The Wreck,” and “Plastic Surgery Phase II” poems transposed onto photographs. The Healing Muse: A Journal of Literary and Visual Arts. October 2008, Volume 8.
Feature: “The Healing Power of Writing From Life” New Life Journal. July 2008.
“A Sister’s Call.” Writing published in conjunction with photography exhibit by Rebecca Schaper. Emory University Law Library, Atlanta, GA. 2006.
Acquired Brain Injury Vocational Rehabilitation Manual. Shepherd Center, Atlanta, GA. 1998.
An Overview of Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. University of Florida/Intellicus Life Care Plan Training Program. Module 3- Multiple Disabilities section, pp. 55-70. 1997.
Vocational Rehabilitation with Persons With Acquired Brain Injury. Shepherd Center Acquired Brain Injury Program Family Training Manual. 1996.
Child Abuse Prevention and Survivor’s Helpline Training Manual. Georgia Council on Child Abuse. 1994.
Photographs have been published on CD covers and in magazines including Spinal Column, Peachtree, and New Mobility.
Teaching Experience
Mars Hill College: Expository Essay; Documented Essay
A-B Technical Community College: Expository Writing
Antioch University McGregor: Journaling for Transformation
UNC-Asheville College for Seniors: Writing From Life; Witness Narratives: Stories of Survival
UNC-Wilmington Osher Lifelong Learning Institute: Meditation for Stress Reduction
Photography Solo Exhibits
Untitled Permanent Exhibit. Portraits of Brain Injury Survivors. Side By Side Clubhouse, Decatur, GA
Photography Group Exhibits
That’s Me! Scenes From Black Asheville Before Urban Renewal. YMI Cultural Center, Asheville, NC. September 2007-April 2009.
Crossing Over: Looking from There to Here, Looking from Here to There. The Annexe Galleries, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. November 2007.
Goddard College MFA Exhibit. Plainfield, VT. February 2007.
The Whimsical Dreams of August. Interdisciplinary Art Collaboration with Dianne Hodack, Siouxsie Grady, and Margaret DeLima. Avenue Art Gallery, Endicott, NY. March 2006.
Photographer’s Choice. Atlanta Photography Group Gallery, Atlanta, GA. March 2003.
ten. Women in Focus. The Seen Gallery, Decatur, GA. October 2003.
Photography Collections
YMI Cultural Center
Shepherd Pain Clinic
Atlanta Outpatient Surgery Center
Georgia State University