Exposed

My project, Exposed, is an exploration of the theme oil and water via suntan oil and the sea. I focused on sunbathers at the shore. As someone who spent their summers working at and enjoying the beach and my subsequent tans, I became very aware of the spaces people adopted as they worshipped the sun. Its a world where you don’t stare and you stay to the plot of sand you mark as your own for the day. This project allowed me to stare and invite myself to their sacred space.

Most of my work in the past has focused on a heavy and socially-driven issues. My default when given the project of oil and water would have been to tackle some major issue in a documentary style. But this project for me was a new way of seeing and working and encouraged me to start using a large format camera. The 4×5 has allowed me to slow down and get to know faces better. By necessity the camera makes it ok to stare at my subjects and study them. It allows me to take in every detail of the person I am photographing. I study their face, their expression and I am aware of every wrinkle, the shape of their eyes and the way they hold their hands. I am fully engaged in who they are like I never have before.

Jenn Ackerman Minneapolis, MN
www.ackermangruber.com
757.412.5119
jenn(at)ackermangruber(dot)com

Jenn Ackerman is an award­winning photographer and filmmaker based in Minneapolis, MN. After working as an editor and writer, Jenn decided to shift her focus from the written word to the photographic moment. She studied photojournalism at The Danish School of Journalism and in 2008 completed her master´s degree in photography at Ohio University.

Her photographs have been recognized by Photojournalism Competition on Human Rights, Emerging Photographer Fund, the PGB Photo Award, the Honickman First Book Prize and others. In 2008, Ackerman was named Student Photographer of the Year by the Southern Short Course and 2009 she was published in the Communication Arts Photography Annual and named to Photolucida´s 2009 Critical Mass Top 50. Her multimedia and video have been widely recognized including an honorable mention for a Webby and a Telly and two of her short films have been screened at Film Festivals around the country. Her most recent project, Trapped, was named Non-Traditional Photojournalism Publishing Project of the Year and the project´s short film won an Emmy. She is continuing the project through the Inge Morath Award and is producing a feature­length film on the subject.