Becky Jaffe
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, California2013
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
