Jessica Hilltout was born in Belgium, 1977. She's been travelling ever since. Her parents exposed her to the world and this sparked her fascination with images. As a young woman, she attended Art College in Blackpool, England and later worked briefly (and unhappily) in commercial photography. In 2002 she traveled through Central Asia and Africa photographing the seemingly unimportant, the apparently hidden and finding beauty in both. In 2009, she set out on an adventure to capture the passion of football on the African continent at a grassroots level. Jessica travelled more than 20,000 km across 10 countries, equipped with a Hasselblad, 200 rolls of film, logbook, mini digital camera & digital printer and a stock of deflated footballs to trade for handmade balls. She wanted to speak of the World Cups that are played everyday by teams, friends, communities all over the continent where they are making balls, marking pitches, scoring goals and above all pleasing themselves. This project, AMEN, resulted in a beautiful photographic book, an excerpt in National Geographic, and worldwide exhibitions from 2009 to 2014.
Jessica Hilltout
Amen