Biography
Jenny Riffle was born in Washington State in 1979. She studied at Bard
College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY and received her BA in photography
in 2001. Riffle is now pursuing her MFA at the School of Visual Arts,
NY and working at Max Protetch Gallery. Her work has been featured in
the Photo Center NW's annual photo book for 2007 and 2008 as well as
numerous publications including The Stranger and Visionaire. Riffle's
project "The Space In Between" was a finalist for Photo Lucida's
Critical Mass in 2007 and she was chosen to be part of Young Photographers
United in 2009.
Statement
"My portraits are an ongoing investigation into the practice of
empathy and the psychological spaces of the people surrounding me. My
understanding of these people is far greater than with strangers, and
often my photographs are emotionally and psychically revealing my own
emotional state. Recently I have also felt a strong connection to Jan
Vermeer's work. His paintings of every day moments seem very akin to
what I want to capture. A young woman standing near a window appears
transfixed inside her own thoughts as her gaze engages an emotional
reality far beyond the simplicity implied by the ordinary scene."