Meet Jill Enfield | Photographer, Professor, Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jill Enfield and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jill, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I am first generation American on my dads side and second on my mom’s. I was born in Miami Beach, Florida where my dad and his family owned the first camera store on Miami Beach. My fathers family had owned five department stores in Germany, and they had become famous for electronics and cameras during the early part of the 1900’s. When the Nazi’s took over and destroyed the stores during Kristallnacht in 1938, they took my grandfather and his brother to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, but luckily their visas came through and they were able to get out and immigrated to the USA in 1939. Since they had to sign everything over to the Nazi’s before leaving, they didn’t have money to start another business. However, The Leica Camera family (Leitz) helped them, first with getting jobs for my dad, his brother and a cousin, and then helped with letters of introduction to be able to get equipment to stock a store. There is now a documentary about the Leitz family and the help they gave my family called “Die Nazi, der Rabbi und die Kamera” (The Nazis, The Rabbi, and The Camera) distributed by Arte Films.

As you can imagine, we always had cameras in the house, so photography was always a big part of my life, although I did not study photography when I first went to college, I dropped out after a year and went to photo workshops and then back to school at NYU, majoring in Photography. I then got a job teaching at a private girls school in NYC (Spence) and then at Parsons the School of Design. I started having shows and eventually wrote 3 books on alternative processes.

My background has had a huge influence on me. When I started photographing using wet plate collodion (2006), I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with it. After thinking about it for awhile, and discussing things with my husband and friends, I decided to concentrate on people that had wanted to come to this country by choice, instead of being forced to immigrate and always feeling a loss of home and belonging like my family did. I started photographing and interviewing people around my neighborhood in NYC, then they would introduce me to others, and a huge series was on it’s way. I sent a proposal to Ellis Island curators and they offered me a huge show.

In the meantime, we moved out of NYC to the Hudson Valley, and I had more space to work. I started collecting windows that people were throwing out and found a carpenter that could build a greenhouse like sculpture for me. I transferred my images onto the house and spoke about how we are all immigrants and “those in glass houses should not throw stones”. The house and prints have now traveled around the country and I am trying to find a place for the glass house to live.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am so proud of my books! I am dyslexic and I have trouble reading instructions and following them well, so I always had to take good notes when I was learning something new. My books are my notes, written so that people can really follow them and understand the concept and the rules to follow (as well as what rules you can break!).

While I am happy with the work I have done in the past, I would have to say I am most proud of my Glasshouse and the attention that it has brought to me as well as to people thinking about immigration and the importance of acceptance. Their families had to leave their roots to come to the USA without (for the most part) family or friends, and in some cases, much money to better themselves and make for possibilities for their future families.

I am now working on a project that I photographed along the Hudson River which I hope will bring awareness to river towns and their histories as well as the pollution along the river and cleanup.
Each series of images takes me many years to complete as it takes me a long time to figure out how the images should look by way of process and how they should be shown.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love walking around NYC and trying new places to go. Museums like the MET and the Morgan Library, galleries, walking through the parks, When I am in Newburgh (we moved here in 2014), I love going to the mansions in Hyde Park or walking around Cold Springs or along the river. CPW, which just moved to Kingston, has wonderful talks and soon they will have great facilities.
We have a pool and I have a beautiful darkroom – so I have become a homebody, during the summer especially.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My husband, Richard Rabinowitz has been amazingly supportive and helpful in many ways through this journey. Of course, all my photographer friends. It is so wonderful to have people that you can show work to and get feedback from. I feel like I am in a bubble when I am working alone, and being able to show work to people I respect has been amazing.

Website: https://www.jillenfield.com

Instagram: @jillenfield

Linkedin: jill enfield

Facebook: jill enfield

Youtube: @jillenfield4942

Image Credits
Stephen Levey (glasshouse at night)
Jill Enfield for all others