We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Pritchard a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I managed my grief over my mother’s death by delving into the story of our early years through a photographic project called Reverberations.

In the final weeks of my mother’s life, as she slept in the next room, I began an abstract study of her things, particularly her teacups. As a girl, she and I would sit over a cup of Constant Comment tea and talk, sharing news of our days, whether school or the many interests she had outside of the home. The ritual was an important throughline of our relationship. During that final summer, as she shared stories of her life, I sat enthralled, much as I did as a girl. For posterity, and to have her voice with me always, I recorded the conversations.

In the months after her death it became important to honor the traditions we had, the life we shared, and the women we had become. Reverberations is the sum of that wish. The work merges analog images my father took that I digitized, MP4 files of the audio recordings converted to image, and abstractions of the delft pattern teacups she loved. The output was chaotic, random at times, and noisy – which matched how I felt.

Reverberations explores time, nostalgia and loss through sight and sound. It asks whether the legacy of a lifetime can be held within a physical object. The work is personal, aside from the grief. I experienced a trauma over twenty years ago that resulted in deafness in my left ear. My doctor, suggesting a remedy for the deafness, held a vibrating pitchfork to the left side of my head that conducted sound through bone to my working right ear. I felt sound. There are no words for the deepest experiences, for the loss of one’s mother, but I have felt them, and they reverberate within me. The fundamental exploration was whether the cups of my Mother’s and her Mother before her, absorbed the sonic reverberations of every morning coffee, afternoon tea, and evening meal within them – that their laughter is held within the ceramic. Time itself collapsed in a teacup.

Jennifer , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As a child I was encouraged to pursue a diverse range of interests. The creative arts declared themselves to be of life long interest.

I graduated from a small woman’s college with a Bachelor of Arts degree and began a career in buying and merchandising. My experience includes years as an innovative creative fashion executive leading global brands – telling rich and compelling stories to engage and excite consumers. But they were someone else’s stories. In 2010, my husband gave me a camera thinking that I might enjoy the diversion and today, I am a photographic artist and storyteller based in Laguna Beach, California.

In 2015 my father’s death inspired me to tell my own stories and was the catalyst for leaving the corporate world.

A natural curiosity combined with a paradox- filled childhood engendered explorations of life and loss, memory and dreams across a diverse photographic and literary toolbox developed since my husband first put the camera in my hand.

That camera opened the world to me, changed the way I saw and thought, introduced me to mentors who have become friends and gave me community and purpose. I am constantly stimulated by the photographic arts, the projects I pursue, the people I meet. It opened my mind and connected me to the world differently.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I think it is hard when you have been successful in one field, to pivot and begin another – to move from expert in one to novice in another.

In my experience, I found vulnerability and open mindedness to be the unlock. It sounds easy but often isn’t and I can say after fourteen years that I only had one encounter with a teacher or mentor where I didn’t learn something valuable. And for me, it only has to be one thing that I learn to make the encounter worth it. I am a believer in continuous growth and evolution.

I believe that vulnerability and openness extend beyond just learning a new skill or lesson. By being unbiased, it opens us to the world, ideas, perspectives that we wouldn’t otherwise have. Many of my projects are an outcome of exposure to something I wouldn’t have otherwise encountered.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Writing is key to understanding my world, and the exploration of all it’s corners. I did not journal during the years leading to my photographic practice. In 2022 I began a practice of writing every day. It changed my writing and my understanding of the deepest parts of myself, which in turn has enriched my photographic work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jenniferpritchardstudio.com/
• Instagram: @JenniferPritchardStudio