Artist Statement
I am a photojournalist. I tell stories about other people through photos.
A few years ago, a good friend, Cambodian photographer Heng Sinith, said of my photos: “Your pictures are very clear.” I couldn’t hope for a better critique. That’s exactly what I want my photos to be.
Jerry Redfern has worked as a professional photojournalist for 20 years. He began his career as a staff photographer at newspapers in the American West, at a time when papers still had darkrooms and photographers still processed their own film.
In 1998, he and his wife, author Karen Coates, moved to Cambodia. There, Redfern shot news, features and investigative stories for Agence France- Presse, The New York Times, The Cambodia Daily and other publications. He and Coates have since combined their talents on numerous projects examining under-reported stories across Asia and beyond, with particular focus on environment, health and social issues. For the past six years, they have
documented the widespread effects of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Laos. Their book, “Eternal Harvest: The Legacy of American Bombs in Laos,” is scheduled for publication by ThingsAsian Press in 2013. Redfern and Coates have given several public presentations on this issue.
Redfern is a 2012-2013 Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In October 2011, the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University named Redfern a Senior Fellow for continuing work on Eternal Harvest.
Redfern holds a degree in journalism from The University of Montana. His work has won awards from numerous journalism and art organizations, including the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Center – Review Santa Fe, and the National Press Photographers Association.
Redfern’s images appear in publications around the world, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Archaeology, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, GEO, Sierra, National Geographic Books, and many others. In
addition to shooting, Redfern also teaches photojournalism classes to working journalists in developing countries through a variety of journalism training centers.
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Click on any of the thumbnail images to launch the viewer. You can then navigate forward and backward within the portfolio by clicking the left or right side of the enlarged image. Click the add to collection checkbox to automatically add an image to your collection. Image tags or search engine keywords appear below the collections' checkbox and each word or phrase is a link to potentially more image matches.