THE ARTIST: JILL SANDERS

It is so weird to sit down and write a paragraph on yourself and try to be humble, funny, intelligent, yet still offer what people want to read. I don't know, I am me. I am an individual who is at times just like you and at other times off the track. 

I have always been an artist regardless of what was happening in my life. I was a very active painter and photographer throughout my teenage years.  I bought my first camera when I was 12, but it was only early on in my college years that i truly realized that my true passion was photography. 

I moved to NYC in 1989 to study photography at Parson's School of Design. I was mentored by the great Lillian Bassman, Mary Ellen Mark and David Vestal. It was a special, creative, gritty, amazing period of my life.

A couple of years after I finished college I was diagnosed with an  epidermoid brain tumor. I was 28 years of age. I know I am lucky I am here today and I am grateful that I have been able to find myself again. Recovery from brain surgery is not easy.

In 2003 I reconnected with Graham and moved to Lake Tahoe and started focusing on Landscape Photography.  I started sharing my Tahoe images  with the public a few years after this but I still felt that I had not truly found myself. In 2011 we moved back to Los Angeles South Bay with the plan to open my Gallery in the Riviera village in Redondo Beach, close to where I grew up. The Gallery opened in 2014. I truly feel like I have found myself as a photographer. 

Life is never easy. The challenges never stop. Photography is my zen. It is my security blanket into which I wrap all my emotions. All of life’s challenges, whether physical or emotional, are colors in my palette. I have plenty of amazing colorful, happy memories, but the depth of one’s creativity is tested by what one has mentally processed.

I am very excited and grateful to be able to create a classic PVGC Photography Series.. I am also very excited and happy to help the club with our 100 year anniversary book. Graham and I feel my grandfather smiling every time we are on the course. I look forward to sharing my gallery, my photography, my new book “Stillness” and my photography connections with the club.

Every week in my gallery we see young kids that are born to be artists. In 2024 we will be launching a project we have been working on for 3 years to raise money for the arts in schools in the South Bay. Graham and I are very excited to share this project with PVGC in the future.

Cheers Jil

Gallery : 1173 South Catalina Ave , Redondo Beach // Website : http://jillfoto.com // Instagram : @jill.foto