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Jill Balsam was born in Manhattan and lived in New York City until 1977 when she relocated to New Jersey. While her career led her into the computer, telecommunications, and legal fields, Jill’s interest in photography began in 1971 after vacationing in Spain and Portugal.
To document her trip, Jill purchased her first 35mm camera: a Konica Rangefinder. When she returned from her vacation and reviewed her photographs, Jill was struck by both the quality and the beauty of the images captured. It has been 38 years since that vacation. For most of the passing years, photography has been a passion and a way of life.
Jill’s photographic style evolved to soft, flowing moments of time. A photograph that was taken of an exotic lily, softened and vignetted almost beyond recognition of any detail, won the gold medal in a New Jersey state competition. This was the single event that determined the direction Jill would ultimately take. It was very shortly thereafter that Jill took a great leap of faith into the painterly and the abstract. What she found there was a very soft, safe, comfortable, and creative place to land. She fondly quotes Ansel Adams, “Photography is more than a medium for factual ideas. It is a creative art.” Jill Balsam has taken this philosophy to heart; in fact she has pushed it to its limits.
All of Jill's art is created from her own digitally enhanced photographs.
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