Jessica Earnshaw is a documentary filmmaker and photographer. In 2020, she was featured on DOC NYC’s "40 under 40" list. Her work focuses on criminal justice, familial relationships and women. Her photography has appeared in National Geographic, The Marshall Project, Mother Jones Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, amongst others.
Her first documentary feature, JACINTA (2020), executive produced by Impact Partners, won the Albert Maysles Best New Documentary Director Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020. JACINTA has received nominations from the International Documentary Association for best feature documentary and best director, as well as two Cinema Eye nominations for best debut feature and a spotlight award. JACINTA is currently available to stream on Hulu.
Jessica is a graduate of the International Center of Photography's photojournalism program (New York). She later worked as a junior photo editor at TIME Magazine.
In 2015, she received the prestigious Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation Fellowship & Grant to photograph aging in American prisons and re-entry after a life sentence. In 2016, her aging in prison work was published in National Geographic, Huffington Post and PDN Magazine and named one of the most interesting photo essays of the week by Buzzfeed. In 2017, her work on re-entry after a life sentence was published in Mother Jones and The Marshall Project.
Jessica is currently based in Los Angeles.
SELECT INTERVIEWS:
Hulu | Sarah Paulson, Jessica Earnshaw, and Jacinta in Conversation, 2021
ABC News | Nightline Interview, 2021
Breakfast Television Toronto | Interview with Devi Brown, 2023
PAST EXHIBITIONS:
Aging In Prison, Discipline & Women in Prison, and Jacinta, part of Sentenced. Kinoteka, Warsaw, Poland, Sept 3-12, 2021
Aging In Prison, part of Hidden In Sight: Photographing Incarceration, with Danny Lyon & Isadora Kosofsky Hofstra University Museum, New York, Sept 2018 - March 2019
SELECT PUBLISHED WORK:
NPR, In Iowa, A Commitment To Make Prison Work Better For Women, October 17, 2018. Mother Jones Magazine, What Life Is Like After A Life Sentence, July/August 2017 Issue. The Marshall Project, Life After Life Without Parole, June 13, 2017. PDN Magazine, Jessica Earnshaw Photographs Elderly Violent Offenders in Prison, November 1, 2016 National Geographic, Aging Inmates: Photographer Shines Light on Loneliness and Isolation, August 4, 2016 The Wall Street Journal, What Artists Take To Coachella, April 23, 2016. The Wall Street Journal, A French Stand-Up Star Takes On New York, March 22, 2016. The Wall Street Journal, ‘When a Child Doesn’t Speak: Treating Selective Mutism”, Aug 17, 2015. The Wall Street Journal, ‘Behind the Scenes at Coachella with Jamestown Revival’, April 20, 2015. NBC News & NBC Dateline, “Mold, Mice and Zip Codes: Inside The Childhood Asthma Epidemic”, Jan 5, 2014 New York Times, “Montefiore Children’s Prom”, Sept 12, 2011