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 from the University of Texas at San Antonio in photography and new media. Her core research is highly concept-driven inspired by memory, moment and time and often utilizes familial imagery to convey both the intimacy and the diverse roles and relationships individuals play within a family unit. The methodologies utilized to create her work can take up to two years to complete. As a result, Sheffield periodically takes on landscape-driven projects that begin with just her responding to the landscape. She is interested in landscapes that tend to be fleeting. Similar to her core research, Sheffield approaches the landscapes looking for and observing changes over time.
Sheffield is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Baylor University. Her photographs and work are in several collections throughout the United States and have been exhibited internationally with her latest work exhibiting at The Print Center in Philadelphia; Houston Fine Art Fair; Colorado Photographic Arts Center; Lens Culture; The Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, Colorado; Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana, California; Cambridge University (UK), and Medien Kultur Haus Wels, Austria.
In addition to her research, Sheffield provides workshops and lectures all around the United States on topics including her artistic practices and methodologies, digital techniques in photography, and considering the image in a new context,
outside of the traditional roles.