Artist Statement:

Becky Jaffe Fine Art Photography explores the nature of Biophilia, the innate sense of kinship we recognize with other living beings. Featuring flora and fauna from national parks, wildlife refuges, and biological reserves in Africa, the United States, and Latin America, her photographs embody the philosophy stated by Yann Arthus Bertrand,  “The Earth is Art, the photographer only a witness.”

A photographer, naturalist, and educator living in Oakland, California, Becky Jaffe teaches biology to Bay Area high school students. She also leads environmental science tours and is the Artist in Residence at the University of California’s Botanical Garden at Berkeley. Using in-camera techniques that stretch the photographic medium to create painterly effects, she fuses an artist’s sensibility with a biologist’s curiosity in order to communicate reverence for the natural world. She enjoys photographing birds and tropical insects in particular, and relishes those moments when the insects appear to be studying her.

Her photographs have been recognized by the California Academy of Sciences, the Center for Fine Art Photography, the Entomological Society of America, and have been published in The Buddhist Poetry Review, Bay Nature Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, and National Geographic’s “Your Shot.”

Exhibitions

2015

Nature’s Duets, a solo exhibition at the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center Gallery, California       

Reflections, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, California                                                                     

Fur, Feathers, and Fins at the Pacific Art League, California

Fauna at the Linus Gallery, Pasadena, California

Skyward at the 1650 Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Wild Things at the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, Missouri

Art in Nature Photo Festival, Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Maryland

 2014
 
Love, Darkroom Gallery, Essex Junction, Vermont
 
Take Flight, Kiernan Gallery, Lexington, Virginia
 
Visions of the Wild, Vallejo Arts Center, California
 
Animal, Linus Gallery, California
 
Wild Things, Sweetwater Center for the Arts, Pennsylvania
 
At Home in the Wild, Wildling Museum, California
 
Art and the Garden, Art Center Traverse City, Michigan
 
Beasties! Sebastopol Center for the Arts, California

2013

Reflections: The Visual Echo, 1650 Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Nature’s Many Splendors, Filoli Garden, Woodside, California

19th Annual Juried Exhibition, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, Massachusetts

Nature Speaks, Linus Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Corpus Illuminata III, Tangent Gallery, Detroit, Michigan

A Bug’s Life, 1650 Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Reflections of the Latin American Natural Environment, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Bay Area Wetlands to Ridgetops Exhibit: SF Bay Flyway Festival, Mare Island, California

Sustainable Silicon Valley Art Exhibit, Palo Alto, California

35th Annual Juried Photography Exhibit, Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary, McKinney, Texas

Creatures, Kiernan Gallery, Lexington, Virginia

West Coast Biennial Juried Art Exhibition, Turtle Bay Art Gallery, Redding, California

2012

Nature in Vision & Verse, The Bone Room Gallery, Berkeley, CA

Monterey Bay Birding Festival exhibit, Watsonville Civic Center, Watsonville, California

The Surreal World of Insects, Terraria, Oakland, California

Michael H. Kellicutt International Photo Show: Through a Lens: Vibrant! Coastal Arts League,Half Moon Bay, California

Entomological Society of America’s Insect Photographic Salon, Lincoln, Nebraska

Entomological Society of America’s Insect Photographic Salon, Lexington, Kentucky

Imag-i-nations, Picturish Gallery, Berkeley, California

The Human Form, the Darkroom Gallery, Vermont

2011

Nature, Linus Gallery, Pasadena, California

Natural Playground, The Darkroom Gallery, Vermont

Art in Nature, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado

Blue Ridge Mountain Photographers National Juried Nature and Fine Art Photography Exhibit,Richard Lowe Evans Gallery, Blue Ridge, Georgia

Natural Talent Photography Exhibit, Contra Costa County Historical Society, Martinez, California

2010

Berkeley Fine Arts Photographers exhibit, The French Hotel, Berkeley, California

Bay Area Wildlife: Beautiful, Vital, Fragile: A Fine Art Photography Exhibit, Filoli Gardens, Woodside, California

“People” Photography Exhibit,  Berkeley Camera Club, Red Oak Realty, Berkeley, California

PRO ARTS’ East Bay Open Studios, Frisbie St. Artspace, Oakland, California

Mirror Image: An Art Show About Body (Mis)Perceptions, Frisbie St. Artspace, Oakland, California

Photographic Currents Berkeley City College, Berkeley, California

Illuminating Shadows: Art Show in the Dark, Frisbie St. Artspace, Oakland, California

2009

Still (in) Motion: Photography by Women Exploring Stillness and Motion, Frisbie St. Artspace, Oakland, California

Illuminated Corridors, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California

Awards

2014

Winner of the Family Life category of the LoveLife Competition at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California

2013

Winner of the Wildlife Category of the LoveLife Competition at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California

Grand Champion, Art in Nature Photo Competition, the Ward Museum, Maryland

Best in Show, Bay Area Wetlands to Ridgetops Exhibit: SF Bay Flyway Festival, Mare Island, California

First Place, Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary, McKinney, Texas

2011                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Winner of the Aquatic Life Category, Honorable Mention in the Land Life Category, and People’s Choice Winner of the California Academy of Sciences’ Love Life Photo Competition

Lectures

2013

Bay Area Life Cycles, Friends of the San Pedro Valley Park, Pacifica, California                                    

Eye to Compound Eye Guest lecture at the Insect Sciences Museum, BioAffiliates, Oakland, California

Genital Plugs, Projectile Penises & Gay Butterflies: A Naturalist Explains the Birds and the Bees, Nerd Nite San Francisco and Nerd Nite Portland

Seeing Nature & the Nature of Seeing Guest lecture at San Francisco State University’s Cinematography Department

2012 

Eye to Compound Eye: The Art & Science of Insect Photography Guest lecture at the Berkeley

Camera Club, Berkeley, California

Bay Area Life Cycles, SF Natural History Series, the Randall Museum, San Francisco, California

Eye to Compound Eye: The Art & Science of Insect Photography, the California Academy of

Sciences, San Francisco, California

Eye to   Compound Eye: The Art & Science of Insect Photography Guest lecture at the Alameda

Photographic Society, Alameda, California

Eye to Compound Eye: The Art and Science of Insect Photography, The Bone Room Presents Natural History Series, Berkeley, California

Publications

East Bay Express, November 21 – 27, 2012

National Geographic’s Your Shot, September 5, 2012

Bay Nature, October – December issue, 2009

Buddhist Poetry Review, Summer 2011 issue

Radio Interviews

November 24, 2012: Guest naturalist on Sedge Thomson’s West Coast Live on KALW

Representation

Abrams Claghorn Gallery

Collector Art

Getty Images