Jersey Walz
Where were you raised? Has the landscape of that place influenced your work in any way?
I was born and raised in NYC until the age of 11 when we moved to Rome, Italy. My father won a fellowship through the American Academy in Rome and although the fellowship was a year long we moved there permanently. Growing up between two cultures gave me an advantage to simultaneously participate and observe in a way that made photography an obvious calling. I was raised in an artistic household where a life in the arts was a very clear path held in the highest regard. In New York we frequented galleries (then in Soho) weekly. Our move to Rome came after the loss of my mother (herself a photographer). In Italian culture there is such a graceful balance between work (art practice) with family, food and leisure. We casually visited Caravaggio paintings in churches and I drove my moped past the roman forum and colisseum daily. These early life traumas/experiences/celebrations bore into me a need to preserve (by photographing), to document, honor and continue to revisit.
How do you re-charge your creative battery?
By drinking coffee at night after my kids are sleeping to have some thoughts, edit work, look at photo books. Yoga! And in times of covid, because of our inability to travel, camping! as a way to break from our routine.
What book are you reading?
I just read Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby. Haven’t been able to pick anything else up yet.
What was the last thing that you fell in love with?
My youngest child. He’s 2 now and through him all over again in love with my daughter and husband and the family we created.
What do you love most about yourself?
I have stamina (mostly physical) to run a marathon (I ran the NY marathon in 2004) and as a mama...to entertain and juggle 2 kids under 4.
What do you think is the most important quality in a human?
Empathy! that we may see, connect and communicate with all the other humans.
Do you have a spiritual practice?
I practice 108 sun salutations daily. I think it is my most powerful ritual of gratitude, to the elements and my body.
Who are your role models?
Ha-- my parents obviously, and then my kids who are teaching me how to be a parent.
If you could change one thing about our world, what would it be? Is there an individual or an organization doing work in this area that you want us to know about?
Get Trump out of the White House! Hopefully by the time this interview is posted it will be truth.
Before I die I want to…
Spend a summer on Pantelleria (an island between Sicily and Tunisia)
All photos courtesy of Jersey Walz
