69 × 50cm

Archival pigment print on cotton rag

Framed in box frame in blackened oak with art glass

Edition 1 of 6

*Artworks sold individually

The Light Within, 2023

This heroic Angophora costata (kajimbourra - Sydney red gum) graces the hillside above my old home of 35 years, on Cammeraygal land. As I’d walk under its magnificent boughs, I’d always pause in wonder. Watching it pass through cycles of life - its flowers blooming and falling, its rough red bark splitting and shedding, revealing a new smooth pink skin - it reminded me that every loss creates space for new growth. 

Aboriginal people have long celebrated the kajimbourra, considering it an ascension tree where spirits travel down the tree to a mother at birth and up the tree at death. The tree is a symbol of transformation and resilienceto them and used for healing. 

The tree, glowing with light the night I left my home, now feels a symbol of hope and renewal for me. 

Photographer Jennifer Blau explores the emotional landscape, focusing on the liminal experience of life transitions that many of us share; between love and loss, the known and unknown, presence and impermanence. She seeks to capture these collective human experiences, and reflect on how they are mirrored in nature.

Jennifer’s photography has been widely exhibited and recognised in Australia and internationally with subjects spanning portraiture and environment. Awards include winner in the British Journal of Photography’s Female in Focus award (2022), finalist in Australia’s National Photographic Portrait Prize (2021), Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Award (2023 and 2024), Burwood Art Prize (2023) and Head On Photo Awards (2021, 2013). In 2024/2025, Jennifer exhibited Between Me and the Sea as Artist in Profile at Mosman Art Gallery. Her series Patricia’s Room was a featured exhibition at Head On Photo Festival in 2021.

Jennifer is author of The 50 Book: Women Celebrate Life about the experience of women in midlife. She has a Master of Documentary Photography from Sydney College of the Arts (2012) and Master of Art Therapy from Western Sydney University (2018). Jennifer lives on Cammeraygal land on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.