Artist Statement
I’m interested in stories and how they’re told. With light and sound. Darkness and silence. 0 and 1. Whitespace and form. Movement and stillness.
I work in digital and analog photography, ink, ambient music, and graphic arts. My primary work fuses atmospheric surrealism with street photography to capture the essence of places and the people in them. While best known for a black-and-white aesthetic, I also deploy color to bold effect for botanical, cookbook, and event photography. I have written articles for photography publications like PetaPixel, DIY Photography, and DigitalRev.
I am fascinated by liminal "in-between" spaces in life and art, and inspired by cinematography, graphic arts, and ambient design. I love grain and glitches. Influences include life-long multidisciplinary artists like Agnès Varda, Brian Eno, Patti Smith, Daidō Moriyama, and Yayoi Kusama.
My professional career as a designer (visual, motion, sound) and writer in the technology industry informs my lens on storytelling, composition, technical and artistic experimentation. This includes photobook curation and publishing under my own imprint LIMINART — and helping people find their own artistic voices through creative workshops and photowalks.
A nomad in spirit, I value curiosity and creative freedom above all things. I recently spent a year living on three continents out of a small suitcase, with a Ricoh GRIII as my only camera.
Publication
Subscribe to my Substack to view past articles and get my latest work.
The Indecisive Moment: Street Photography and AI, October 2023. Reprinted in PetaPixel and DIY Photography..
On Being a Female Street Photographer. Reprinted in PetaPixel, DIY Photography, Digital Rev.
Don’t Take My Picture: Street Photography and Public Privacy, July 29, 2016. Reprinted in PetaPixel.
Curation / collaboration
Instructor, Swiss Photo Club. July 2025 — present.
Jury Member, Swiss Photo Club Awards, Zürich, Switzerland. 2025.
Guest curator, Ephemere. Open Call #7 - Duality. Tokyo, Japan. 2025
Contributing artist. So You Want to Make a Virtual Exhibition? A survey of metaverse tools for turning cultural memory into immersive digital spaces, Karen Frances Eng, 18 June 2025.
Exhibition
Geneva, Switzerland. SPC Photo Awards. Galerie Renaissance, 12-21 June, 2025.
Tokyo, Japan. Planet of the Zines — Photography Edition #1. The Blank Gallery. 31 May-1 June 2025.
Zürich, Switzerland. SPC Photo Awards - Artist Corner, Photobastei, 13-22 March 2025.
Zürich, Switzerland. Stage Gallery, Shadows & Reflections Exhibition, 27 February - 9 March 2025.
Zürich, Switzerland. SPC Photo Awards, Photobastei, 22 August - 31 August 2024.
Brooklyn, New York, USA. Tokyo Streets Pop-Up Exhibition / NYC-SPC x Ricoh Imaging, ContactPhoto Gallery, 30 May - 1 June 2024.
Tokyo Japan. Permanent installation, The EDITION Hotel, Sophie Restaurant, opened January 2024.
Bainbridge Island, Washington USA. Bainbridge Arts & Crafts Gallery, Fresh Talent Exhibition, October 2021.
DESIGN
Find her at JILL.DESIGN and LinkedIn.
Jill is a design consultant, photographer, executive writing coach, and writer with 20+ years in innovation product design for companies such as Amazon, Sony Music, Teague, and Microsoft.
Books
From Fuji to Üetli (2024)
M23 Myōgadani (2024)
INKyōto 京都墨 (2019)
Tokyo: Shibuya Shimokitazawa Harajuku (2017)
MUSIC
Jill records as J1L and composes electronic soundscapes using ambient field recordings that she makes in the Pacific Northwest, Japan, and in cities around the world. All field recordings she uses on her tracks are her own. She recently used one of her compositions in her short film, Komorebi 木漏れ日, shot entirely handheld with a Ricoh GRIII in Tokyo, Japan. You can hear her work on all major music platforms.
Follow J1L on Spotify.