ASHLAND — Dr. Jennifer Fish’s quaint childhood in Ashland sparked a curiosity that would later lead her to capture more than 60,000 photographs in 49 different countries.
The award-winning professor, photographer and chair of the women’s studies department at Old Dominion University has spent the past decades — prior to the pandemic — telling stories through her camera lens.
The photos she takes are carefully crafted artwork. She considers color and composition, and when taking portraits, she purposefully places the subject of her photography in a setting that offers insight into their identity.
Before she looks to her camera, Fish adjusts her focus. She aims to understand those whom she’d like to photograph, even in extremely remote regions.
“It’s not really traditional work, it’s more about trying to get people’s stories by staying with them a long time and traveling in places where stories might not be as easily shared,” Fish said.
When visiting Kashmir, India, she spent a week living with nomadic farmers. The experience led her to take a picture of a woman at sunset. A small baby in a red hat peaks over her shoulder and the group of goats that she and her family herd are visible in the background.
“Underneath it, there’s a story of how nomadic farmers are at risk in terms of climate change,” Fish said. “The goat farmers have to move all the time.
“Because of climate change, they’re having to relocate, and their whole existence is under threat.”
At a refugee camp in Rwanda, Fish conducted dozens of interviews while taking portraits of its residents, and in Nepal, she focused on telling the story of a single family’s survival after the 2015 earthquake.
“What I often see is the way that struggle and devastation are intertwined with resilience and survival,” Fish said. “And so when you go to a community where everything’s been destroyed, in a place where people are among the poorest in the world, and you see the spirit of survival, and people want to offer you a cup of tea, give you their only bed, it’s just so moving.”
Fish is a social documentarian who has studied human rights, social justice and education. These themes present themselves repeatedly in her photography, but can also be seen in her four books, documentary film series and more.
She draws heavily upon her photographs to teach students to see the world with a greater depth and appreciation.
“I never use just words in lectures, but sometimes I’ll just do a whole lesson focused on images,” Fish said. “When I can show them examples instead of just talking about a theory that really brings light — and hopefully empathy and connection — to their worlds.”
Her research has informed a number of international organizations and policy institutes, such as the United Nations’ International Labour Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
Additionally, she acts as a research consultant for the Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) policy-research network, founded at Harvard University.
But before traveling the world and researching other cultures, Fish was a curious child growing up in north central Ohio.
She found her sense of adventure and passion for storytelling as a child wandering the woods behind her Ashland home and exploring her family’s property. It was an enticing introduction to the world she was yet to experience.
One afternoon, Fish likely walked unsupervised to visit with the Kristhnamurthi family. She might have played basketball and board games with the family’s two children while their mother prepared dosa, chutney, and dahl for dinner.
“(It was) a palette so distinct to the pot roast and potato cuisine of my own family on the other side of the woods, where my parents, grandparents and aunt resided on 38-farm acres in a quintessential American small town,” Fish said.
She remembers admiring a painting of the Taj Mahal in their home.
“It came to symbolize the depth of my curiosity and my aspirations to see the world far beyond my small town,” Fish said, recollecting that even as a child, she dreamed of seeing India after knowing the Kristhnamurthi family.
Another day, Fish might have stopped by her great grandmother’s house. Mabel Viola Heifner likely challenged her granddaughter to a game of scrabble or told stories that transported Fish to different times and places.
Heifner, who lived to be 107, raised six children — four of her own and two more of her husband’s. She moved to Ohio while only speaking Pennsylvania Dutch and could recall seeing one of the earliest cars.
“It was fascinating to hear these stories. She could recall a time that I could only imagine,” Fish said.
Later, Fish would page through stacks of National Geographic magazines in her reading room.
“I began to study maps to rank my ‘some-day’ visits. Yet my family’s longest trip took us only from Ohio to a beloved Michigan lake each year,” Fish said.
Her experience on the lake embedded a sense of adventure and curiosity about a larger world.
“If I could swim on my own to the island and traverse Diamond Lake by boat, I imagined that I could reach Africa and India, the two world regions crystalized in my imagined ultimate places.”
Throughout her childhood in Ashland, Fish remembers a distinct fascination with the Amish culture. At the grocery store with her mother, she noticed the horse and buggies parked alongside cars and trucks.
“I felt so curious about how this group lived, and what made them dress and practice in such a distinct way,” Fish said.
Her mom would stop to buy strawberries from an Amish family, and Fish remembers wanting to stay and talk with them, and understand their way of life more clearly — a vision that she maintains today.
In 1995, Fish moved to South Africa, seeking her first “great international immersion.” She wanted to take part in the country’s new democracy, with the election of Nelson Mandela. She craved a full experience in another country where she could offer some contribution to a larger development project.
In the Eastern Cape, she worked at the first university to open its admission to all races, after nearly 50 years of apartheid — an experience that led to her study of sociology, human rights and international development.
Fish returned from South Africa to earn her doctorate in sociology at American University in Washington DC. As a professor, she has shared her interests in travel and cross-cultural exchange with students, by leading more than 150 on trips around the world.
She believes in the power of direct contact and hands-on learning, a lesson her father, James Fish, modeled for her throughout her life.
“The more I traveled, the more I wanted to travel, the more curiosity I had. The world starts to seem a lot smaller,” Fish said.
She felt a strong determination to share this with her students, and break down barriers by creating situations where people interact and learn across lines of difference.
The pandemic has curbed Fish’s travel habits, but she continues to introduce students to other cultures in her lessons. She uses her photos in her classes at Old Dominion University, and draws from this moment to teach about the realities of global health and economic inequality.
During the pandemic, Fish has worked with three artists’ projects in South Africa to provide support and income during a time of economic crisis.
Even though she has journeyed around the world, from the Himalayas to African safaris, Fish finds profound gratitude for her formative years in rural Ohio.
In the future, Fish hopes to come home to study a culture she grew up around. This summer, she plans to spend some time with the county’s Amish communities to see how they are navigating the pandemic and understanding their connection to larger public health needs.
She is also working with the international students on her campus to tell the stories of many who are navigating the U.S. alone, while their own families are coping with the virus
To learn more about her work, visit jennifernataliefish.com.
