Joyce Tenneson

Joyce Tenneson (b. 1945) has spent the better part of her career looking inward—stripping away the surface veneer of an individual or object in search of its essence. Her human portraits transcend simple likeness, blending portraiture with mythology in a quest to reveal the archetypes embedded in our identities. Tenneson’s signature images strive to expose the inner life of her subjects, the unseen person who hovers just behind the facade. She approaches each sitting with deep curiosity, first learning about her subjects’ histories in order to connect with their emotional core. Her goal is to enter their universe and distill something of their spirit into the frame.

Tenneson brings the same reverence to her floral studies, treating flowers not as decorative objects but as living beings with unique personalities. She follows their life cycles—bud, bloom, and eventual decay—capturing both physical beauty and emotional resonance. In both people and petals, she seeks moments of quiet vulnerability and universal truth.

Raised with her two sisters on the grounds of a convent where her parents worked, Tenneson absorbed a world rich in symbolism, ritual, and surreal pageantry. “It was a mysterious environment—something out of Fellini,” she later reflected. That dreamlike sensibility, tinged with intimacy and ambiguity, echoes throughout her work. After studying photography at George Washington University, where she earned her master’s degree, Tenneson left a teaching position at age 39 to pursue her art full-time in New York. She is known for her work with the large-format Polaroid 20×24 camera, which she uses to produce luminous, detailed prints that emphasize texture and tone.

Tenneson is widely regarded as one of the most influential portraitists of her generation. Her work has appeared on countless magazine covers, including Time, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Premiere, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine. Her accolades include the Infinity Award for Applied Photography from the International Center of Photography and “Photographer of the Year” from Women in Photography International. In a American Photo poll, she was named among the ten most influential women photographers in the history of the medium.

Her work is held in numerous permanent collections, including the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts; the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands; the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University; and the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Louis. Tenneson continues to live and work between New York City and Maine, creating portraits that blur the boundary between realism and reverie.