Jessica Earnshaw is a multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker and photojournalist whose work explores the intersections of criminal justice, familial relationships and women. Her photography has been featured in leading publications including National Geographic, The Marshall Project, Mother Jones Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, amongst others.
Earnshaw's debut feature documentary, JACINTA (Hulu/ABC News, 2021), is a portrait of generational trauma and addiction, following a mother and daughter incarcerated together. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where Earnshaw was honored with the Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director in 2020. JACINTA went on to receive nominations from the International Documentary Association for Best Feature Documentary and Best Director, as well as two Cinema Eye Honors nominations.
Her follow-up feature, BABY DOE (Impact Partners, 2025), premiered in competition at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival. The film follows the case of Gail Ritchey, a woman from rural Ohio whose life is upended when DNA evidence links her to the death of her newborn thirty years after the incident. The film examines the psychological phenomenon of pregnancy denial and explores the personal, legal, and societal ramifications surrounding Ritchey's arrest and trial.
Named to DOC NYC’s “40 Under 40” list in 2020, Earnshaw is a graduate of the International Center of Photography’s photojournalism program in New York and previously worked as a junior photo editor at TIME Magazine. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
SELECT INTERVIEWS:
Hulu | Sarah Paulson, Jessica Earnshaw, and Jacinta in Conversation, 2021
ABC News | Nightline Interview, 2021
Breakfast Television Toronto | Interview with Devi Brown, 2023
PAST EXHIBITIONS:
Aging In Prison, Discipline & Women in Prison, and Jacinta, part of Sentenced. Kinoteka, Warsaw, Poland, Sept 3-12, 2021
Aging In Prison, part of Hidden In Sight: Photographing Incarceration, with Danny Lyon & Isadora Kosofsky Hofstra University Museum, New York, Sept 2018 - March 2019
SELECT PUBLISHED WORK:
NPR, In Iowa, A Commitment To Make Prison Work Better For Women, October 17, 2018. Mother Jones Magazine, What Life Is Like After A Life Sentence, July/August 2017 Issue. The Marshall Project, Life After Life Without Parole, June 13, 2017. PDN Magazine, Jessica Earnshaw Photographs Elderly Violent Offenders in Prison, November 1, 2016 National Geographic, Aging Inmates: Photographer Shines Light on Loneliness and Isolation, August 4, 2016 The Wall Street Journal, What Artists Take To Coachella, April 23, 2016. The Wall Street Journal, A French Stand-Up Star Takes On New York, March 22, 2016. The Wall Street Journal, ‘When a Child Doesn’t Speak: Treating Selective Mutism”, Aug 17, 2015. The Wall Street Journal, ‘Behind the Scenes at Coachella with Jamestown Revival’, April 20, 2015. NBC News & NBC Dateline, “Mold, Mice and Zip Codes: Inside The Childhood Asthma Epidemic”, Jan 5, 2014 New York Times, “Montefiore Children’s Prom”, Sept 12, 2011