H. Jennings Sheffield

H. Jennings Sheffield was born in Richmond, Virginia. She is a contemporary artist working in lens-based media, video, and sound. Sheffield received her BFA in Photography and Digital Media from the Atlanta College of Art and her MFA in Photography and New Media from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her lens-based work explores memory, identity, and the passage of time. Drawing from personal narratives and collective experiences, her practice merges photography, new media, and alternative processes to visualize the fragmentation and persistence of memory, as well as the intimacy and evolving roles individuals inhabit over a lifetime.

Whether examining familial relationships, communities shaped by environmental change, or the fragile terrain of memory, Sheffield develops long-term projects that investigate transformation, impermanence, and resilience. Rooted in sustained observation and collaboration, her work considers what endures as people, places, and histories evolve, using the photographic image to foster reflection, empathy, and deeper connections to lived experience.

Sheffield is a Professor of Art–Photography at Baylor University and serves on the board of the Texas Photographic Society. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally and nationally. It is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Art Houston, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Capital One, several private collections, and the special collections at the University of Virginia, Baylor University, the University of North Texas, and Virginia Commonwealth University.