Artist Spotlight | Jamie Beck

Award-winning photographer & NYT Bestselling Author

"Your own artist's journey can happen anywhere, at any time—you just have to show up and have courage." 

Jamie's artist's journey began the moment she snapped her first photograph at age thirteen. A decade and a half later, her initial passion and curiosity had translated into a thriving career so that at twenty-eight, Jamie opened a commercial photography studio in lower Manhattan catering to some of the most elite brands in the world.

But it wasn't until years later, in a crumbling old apartment tucked in the hills of Provence, that her photography would meet its renaissance. 

What began as a one-year sabbatical from her chaotic, nonstop New York lifestyle became a love story. One with roots in the South of France from which grew a new sort of life—slower and sweeter, conducted in a landscape of living art. And over time, Jamie began to see herself as art as well. 

In her book, An American in Provence, she walks us through an intimate exploration of those early days of purposeful isolation in a small village where she knew not a soul. How it taught her to welcome the earth again that she'd forgotten how to play in—to pay attention to the creatures who cultivate it, and to connect with a richer, deeper human experience. And over time, her lens reawakened alongside her spirit, capturing still lifes of the abundant food, flora, and fauna available in Provence. 

It was a love story. And when the year ended and departure seemed imminent, Jamie grew roots instead.

Eloise was born to Jamie and her husband, Kevin Burg, in France where Jamie had spent months documenting the pregnancy in stunning portraits reminiscent of the Madonna paintings that once littered every fine home's walls. Wild joy abounded alongside a quiet, strange sort of mourning and wonder about what had been and what would now become—a complicated tangle Jamie shared first in her public posts on Instagram, and again more in depth in her book. 

But with the Covid 19 pandemic of 2020, there came a total lockdown in France that would again, forever change Jamie Beck's life. 

Isolation Creation was born on March 14, 2020.

Sixty days of a total lockdown in France, with work and childcare canceled and the entire world thrown on pause. Jamie, like the rest of us, was terrified of the unknown—but determined to reclaim a sense of power and purpose in the face of utter helplessness. So she issued a challenge, both to herself and all the artists who followed her. 

Sixty days to create. Discover. Explore. To immerse deep within ourselves and the world immediately available around us, and see what might emerge. For her part, she promised not only one piece of photographic art each day, but to document the process and her own thoughts and emotional state in stories along the way. 

And in many ways, to many people, this was the greatest form of hope. Because in the midst of utter loss, confusion, and terror, the one thing we could count on was that somewhere in the world, beauty was still brought into being. 

An American in Provence contains exquisite portrait, scenic, and still-life photography, drawing us through a narrative of adoration and curiosity, of loneliness and community. 

Within its pages lies an intimate exploration of the last five years of her life documented in memoir-style passages that incorporate recipes learned at the hands of masters, techniques she’s used to capture centuries-old rose gardens, and of course the photographs she’s taken along the way.

"In sum, find the thing that SETS YOU FREE."

You can find signed copies of her NYT Bestselling book, An American in Provence, in our physical store and online, as well as her second book The Flowers of Provence, and a curated selection of Jamie's photography captured in posters, prints, journals, crystal paperweights, stationery, and phone cases. You can find the full collection under our Featured tab on the home page, or by clicking on any of the above photographs.

Please give her a follow on Instagram for more as well — @jamiebeck.co

Shop our Jamie Beck products here!