A note on privacy: This page contains photographic work of youth participants in Debwewin: Threads of Truth. Images feature students and in some cases, student likenesses. In accordance with participant consent agreements and the privacy of minors, this page is intended solely for review by Ontario Arts Council assessors and staff as part of the Artists in Communities and Schools Projects grant application process. Please do not share, reproduce, or distribute the images or link beyond this purpose.
My Practice
My photography practice centres on storytelling as a means of fostering connection, empathy, and belonging. Working across portraiture, documentary photography, and community-engaged arts, I create work that prioritizes care, relationality, and the ethics of representation — asking who is telling the story, and how.
Project Mighty Hearts began after the birth of my child with a congenital heart defect. This documentary series follows families navigating congenital heart disease, interrogating what experiences are considered "worthy" of documentation and foregrounding lives often absent from dominant visual culture. The work has been featured on CTV News and CBC Radio.
Debwewin: Threads of Truth is a long-term, youth-led photography and storytelling initiative developed in collaboration with Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and educators across Ontario.
Over five years and five high schools, approximately 180 students have used photography to explore personal and collective truths about colonial history, identity, resilience, and joy.
Participants are not subjects, they are authors and decision-makers, shaping both the images and how their work is shared publicly.
The project has been presented at SXSW EDU and through a TEDx talk.
Across both bodies of work, I am committed to photography as a transformative, relational art form, one that creates space for people to be seen on their own terms.
Project Mighty Hearts — Selected Works
The following images were created by Jen Allison as part of Project Mighty Hearts (2018–2020), a documentary photography series following families navigating congenital heart disease.
Debwewin: Threads of Truth — Selected Works
The following images were created by Jen Allison during Debwewin: Threads of Truth (2017–2023), documenting the project process and community across five Northwestern Ontario high schools.
