Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Jillian Edelstein photographer

Jillian Edelstein was born to Jewish parents in Cape Town, South Africa on 21 August 1958. She moved to London, England in 1985, where she studied Photojournalism at the London College of Printing (although she did not finish the course). Known for her photographic portraits of well-known cultural figures and celebrities, Edelstein has exhibited widely and participated in many projects and commissions across the UK.

Born: 1958 Cape Town, South Africa


Biography

Photographer Jillian Edelstein was born to South African Jewish parents, Noah Edelstein and Isobel Edelstein (nee Sovinsky), in Cape Town, South Africa on 21 August 1958. After a gap year studying in the USA in 1975, Edelstein returned to South Africa to study Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at The University of Cape Town between 1976 and 1979. During her studies she realised her interests lay in photography and, after graduating, she started assisting at a local photographic studio in 1981, later becoming a photographer for The Rand Daily Mail in 1982–83 and The Star newspaper in 1984. Finding that growing up white in apartheid South Africa led to feelings of ‘anger and guilt’, Edelstein states that ‘Photography was a way, for me, of channelling those emotions’, and that ‘At the time I believed that by pointing a camera at security police, or at Casspirs (armoured personnel carriers) cruising the townships, or by documenting clashes between protestors and riot police I might help to change the situation in our country’ (Edelstein, 2002). Edelstein decided to leave apartheid South Africa for London, England in 1985 in order to gain more editorial and educational experience. She studied Photojournalism at the London College of Printing in 1985, but did not complete the course as she started working for the The Sunday Times in 1986 as a freelancer.

Edelstein soon established herself as a successful London-based portrait photographer, photographing many celebrities and cultural figures such as actor, producer and director, Richard Attenborough (1985) and boxer, Lennox Lewis (1988). In a six-month period between 1989 and 1990 she received a number of awards, including the Photographers’ Gallery Portrait Photographer of the Year Award, The Kodak UK Young Photographer of the Year Award, and a Portrait Award at the Association of Photographers Annual Awards. 1989 was also the year that Edelstein started her ongoing Affinities project, comprising portraits of famous creative partnerships. She photographed over 100 'couples' during the 1990s, including comedians, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders (1991), artist, Damien Hirst and his art dealer, Jay Jopling (1992), Olympic sprinters, Colin Jackson and Linford Christie (1993), and ballet dancers, Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope (1993). Between 1996 and 2002, Edelstein returned frequently to South Africa to document stories from The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, culminating in her notable monograph, Truth and Lies (2002), published by Granta, The New Press, Daily Mail and Guardian. As well as many startling side-by-side portraits of victims and perpetrators of apartheid, Truth and Lies included an evocative photograph of Nelson Mandela from 1997, which appeared on the front cover of The New York Times Magazine later that year. Edelstein’s photographs for the project were then exhibited at The Association of Photographers Gallery, London in 2003, the same year in which she won the London-based John Kobal Book Award for her publication.

Edelstein exhibited widely throughout the 2000s, including in solo shows such as Intimate and Unseen at Tom Blau Gallery, London in 2005, and Jillian Edelstein: In Focus at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in 2009. In 2012, Edelstein was commissioned by NPG and BT (British Telecom) to produce a series of 17 portraits for The Road to 2012, an exhibition opened by the Duchess of Cambridge at the start of the London Olympic Games in 2012. In 2016, Edelstein showed at the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and in 2018 she was voted one of the Hundred Heroines, a Gloucester-based initiative established by the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), which received charitable status in 2020, and which promotes international, contemporary women who are transforming photography. Between 2018 and 2019 Edelstein participated in 209 Women, an exhibition held jointly at London’s Portcullis House and the Open Eye Gallery that championed women in politics, contributing a portrait of Tulip Siddiq, MP for Hampstead and Kilburn. In 2019 Edelstein was among 15 renowned documentary and portrait photographers in the UK who were commissioned to participate in Craig Easton’s Project Sixteen, a touring exhibition that considered the transitional lives of 16-year-olds living in the UK as they approach adulthood. Edelstein was also commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Comic Relief to photograph portraits celebrating the resilience of those swept into poverty for the Picture Britain: Our People, Our Poverty exhibition, held at Market Hall, Borough Market, London in 2020. In 2020-21 Edelstein was among 12 photographers (including South African born Michelle Sank) who created portraits for the Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors exhibition held at the Imperial War Museum.

Jillian Edelstein lives and works in London. Her photographs are found in UK public collections including the NPG (which holds over 100 of her images), the Foundling Museum and the Imperial War Museum, London, and Hundred Heroines.

Related books

  • Katherine Elizabeth Mack, From Apartheid to Democracy: Deliberating Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014), pp. 97-124
  • Kylie Thomas, Impossible Mourning: HIV/AIDS and Visuality After Apartheid (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2014), pp. 129-133
  • Paula Horta, 'What Do They Want from Us?', in Karen Bettez Halnon ed., Webbing Vicissitudes of Forgiveness (Leiden: Brill, 2014), pp. 121-133
  • Paula Horta, 'An Alternative Route for Considering Violence in Photography', photographies, Vol. 6, Iss. 1, 2013, pp. 71-81
  • Georgina Horrell, 'White Lies, White Truth: Confession and Childhood in White South African Women's Narratives', Scrutiny2, Vol. 14, Iss. 2, 2009, pp. 59-71
  • Kylie Thomas, 'Photography, Apartheid, and the Road to Reconciliation: Reading Jillian Edelstein's Truth and Lies (2002)', Transition, No. 107, 2012, pp. 79-89
  • Jillian Edelstein, 'Truth and Lies', Wasafiri, Vol. 17, Iss. 35, 2002, pp. 15-17
  • Jillian Edelstein, Truth & Lies: Stories from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa (New York: The New Press, 2002)
  • Jillian Edelstein, 'Truth & Lies', Kunapipi, Vol. 24, No. 1 & 2, 2002, pp. 39-51
  • Jillian Edelstein, 'Shooting Stars', New Statesman, Vol. 131, No. 718, 2002, pp. 25-26
  • Caroline Smith, 'Rolling Back the Frontiers', Women's Art Magazine, Iss. 59, 1994, p. 36

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Association of Photographers (award recipient)
  • Hundred Heroines (listed photographer) (listed photographer)
  • John Kobal Foundation (award recipient) (award recipient)
  • Kodak UK (award recipient) (award recipient)
  • London College of Printing (student) (student)
  • Photographers’ Gallery (award recipient) (award recipient)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors, Imperial War Museum, London and RPS Gallery, Bristol (2021-2022)
  • Jillian Edelstein: Water Rats, Circle Contemporary, Cornwall (2021)
  • Picture Britain: Our People, Our Poverty, Market Hall, Borough Market, London (2020)
  • Project Sixteen, Toured Derby Market Hall, Derby, HOME Gallery, Manchester and New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery & Atrium, Salford (2019)
  • 209 Women, Open Eye Gallery, London and Portcullis House, London (2018-2019)
  • Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2016)
  • Framing Hope, 25 Years of FXB International, OXO Gallery, London (2014)
  • Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London (2014)
  • Truth & Lies, Getty Images Gallery, London (2012)
  • Comedians: From the 1940s to now, National Portrait Gallery, London (2011-12)
  • Hidden Gems for The Variety Club Charity, The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London (2011)
  • Jillian Edelstein: Celebrity Portraits, Roast Restaurant, London (2009)
  • Jillian Edelstein: In Focus, National Portrait Gallery, London (2009)
  • Intimate and Unseen, Tom Blau Gallery, London (2005)
  • Dogs Trust Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2004)
  • Polaroid Exhibition, Short Film Festival, Curzon Soho Cinema, London (2004)
  • Managing Partners, National Portrait Gallery, London (2003)
  • Truth & Lies, The AOP Gallery, London (2003)
  • British Sporting Heroes, National Portrait Gallery, London (1998)
  • Faces of the Eighties, National Portrait Gallery, London (1995)
  • Avedon - My God, The Photographers' Gallery, London (1995)
  • Affinities, Special Photographers Gallery, London (1994)
  • British Comedians, National Portrait Gallery (1994)
  • UK Portrait Photographer of the Year Award, The Photographers' Gallery, London (1990)
  • Women by Women, National Portrait Gallery, London (1989)
  • Comedians, National Portrait Gallery (London)
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Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Jillian Edelstein]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Jillian Edelstein] in the Ben Uri Library