Rebecca Jeffree was born in Oxford and lived the first five years of her life in Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, a village where the first described dinosaur was found. She now lives and works between south east London and East Sussex.
Rebecca grew up around people who loved natural history, arts and crafts and photography. She studied biological sciences at university and working for 13 years as a civil servant within a range of policy areas including the environment, energy, commercial fishing, Brexit, and transgender equality. In 2021 she started studying Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication. Her practice involves mixing different media as a way to explore issues concerning London, the urban natural environment and mixed-cultural heritage.
Her 2019 project on UK fish species was the start of coming back to the arts, inspired by reading more about John Ruskin and the importance he placed on drawing as a way of seeing the world more clearly.
Within her Masters at London College of Communication, she began two documentary projects, one on the art of Chinese lion dance in Britain with Tangs Pak Mei Kung Fu and Lion Dance troupe, the other a mixed media exploration of swifts in London. Highlights of the swift project was exhibited as part of the UAL grad show in June 2023 in Free Range Gallery, Brick Lane.
Rebecca is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. In 2015 she received a BEM for her work on gender equality while in government.
Education
- 2001-2004 BA Biological Sciences – Merton College, University of Oxford
- 2005-2006 MSc Advanced Methods in Taxonomy and Biodiversity – Imperial College London
- 2021- 2023 MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography (Distinction) – London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Awards
- 2015 Medallist of the Order of the British Empire for services to gender equality – interviewed in The Guardian