My name is Claire Jessen and I’m a senior at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill pursuing a BA in Media and Journalism. I grew up in the Chicago area, and have loved photography and the digital arts ever since I was young. I knew from the day my dad gave me my first camera for my 10th birthday that it was something that would be part of me forever, and I am so fortunate to be able to learn from the best at UNC, where I;ve had the opportunity to dive into various fields of multimedia such as graphic design, interactive media/UIUX, and of course further my skills and love for photo and video.
Being able to capture not only amazing moments from my life, but of the lives of others, and being able to share that with them is such a gift to me, and I hope to continue spreading the joys of photo and video for the rest of my life to everyone around me.
My true passion lies in the roots of photography. Since I started around 6 years ago, I have shot countless portraits, graduations, special occasions, performances, and recently weddings. I love the art of photographing people, and I will continue to pursue a professional career in photo as well as hope to establish my own fully-running photography business in the following years after graduation.
Documentary filmmaking has always been so captivating to me, and I have recently had more exposure to the art during the Fall 2021 while making a short film on my niece, a cancer survivor who passed away during production. As difficult as it was to continue with the film, I learned so much from the experience and it ignited a passion for videography and filmmaking even more in my soul. I hope to continue filmmaking throughout my career, and to grow my skillset.