J. T. Blatty
{{Short description|American photojournalist (born 1978)}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name =
| image = J.T. Blatty at Frontline Peace Life exhibition.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Blatty at Frontline / Peace Life exhibition in 2020, in front of her portrait of "Valkyrie" Yulia Tolopa
| birth_name = Jennifer Tuero Blatty
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1978}}
| birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
| education =
| alma_mater = United States Military Academy
| occupation = Photojournalism
| years_active = 2006–present
| style =
| mother = Linda Tuero
| father = William Peter Blatty
| website = {{official website|jtblatty.com}}
}}
Jennifer Tuero Blatty (born 1978) is an American photojournalist, author, former army captain, and college athlete. The daughter of tennis player Linda Tuero and writer and filmmaker William Peter Blatty, she was a star tennis player at the United States Military Academy at West Point. She served six years in the United States Army including in the United States invasion of Afghanistan, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. After military service she became a photojournalist. She wrote and photographed for newspapers, magazines, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and published photobooks about communities in the United States South. Since 2018 she has been documenting Ukrainian military volunteers and soldiers in the Russo-Ukrainian War. She has published a memoir of her time as a soldier and war journalist.
Family and early life
File:William-Peter-Blatty-2009 (cropped).jpg
Jennifer Tuero Blatty was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1978,{{cite web |title=Blatty, J. T. (Jenn Tuero), 1978- - LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2019012751.html |website=Library of Congress |access-date=30 March 2022}} to tennis player and paleoanthropologist Linda Tuero and author and filmmaker William Peter Blatty.{{cite web |title=Linda Tuero |url=https://exhibits.tulane.edu/exhibit/tulanewomen/athleticwomen/linda-tuero/ |website=Tulane University |access-date=30 March 2022}} Each parent married several times, and she has multiple half-siblings; full brother Billy Blatty became a restaurateur and entrepreneur.{{cite news |last1=Marsh |first1=Eric |title=PROFILES IN RESILIENCE: Billy Blatty, Dressed Hospitality Group, New Orleans, LA |url=https://www.tastingpanelmag.com/profiles-in-resilience-billy-blatty-new-orleans/ |access-date=30 March 2022 |work=The Tasting Panel |date=27 April 2020}} In 1996 she graduated from St. Martin's Episcopal School, which her mother had also attended.{{cite news |title=Scattered Saints |url=https://issuu.com/st.martinsepiscopalschool2/docs/the_bell-f_w2018_web |access-date=30 March 2022 |work=The Bell |issue=Fall/Winter 2018 |publisher=St. Martin's Episcopal School |page=46 |language=en}}
West Point and military service
Blatty attended the United States Military Academy at West Point from 1996 to 2000. While there, she was a standout athlete in women's tennis. She was part of the Patriot League all-star tennis singles team each of her four years, and doubles in 1997.{{cite web |title=Patriot League Announces Women's Tennis 25th Anniversary Team |url=https://patriotleague.org/news/2015/8/20/Patriot_League_Announces_Women_s_Tennis_25th_Anniversary_Team.aspx |website=Patriot League |access-date=30 March 2022 |language=en |date=August 20, 2015}} She amassed a record 27 career wins at number 1 ranked women's tennis singles.{{cite web |title=Army Sweeps Through Albany, 7-0 |url=https://patriotleague.org/news/2003/1/26/Army_Sweeps_Through_Albany_7_0.aspx |website=Patriot League |access-date=30 March 2022 |language=en |date=January 26, 2003}} She was a captain of the women's tennis team in the 1999–2000 school year,{{cite news |title=2010-11 Army Women's Tennis Guide by Army West Point Athletics - Issuu |url=https://issuu.com/armyathletics/docs/2010-11_wten_media_guide_final/28 |access-date=30 March 2022 |work=issuu.com |date=November 10, 2010 |page=26 |language=en}} and her team, the Army Black Knights, won the League title in both 1999 and 2000. She also won the most valuable player of the Patriot League.{{cite web |title=Women's tennis alum to receive 2020-21 Fulbright Scholarship |url=https://goarmywestpoint.com/news/2020/7/6/athletics-womens-tennis-alum-to-receive-2020-21-fulbright-scholarship.aspx |website=Army West Point |language=en |date=July 6, 2020}} After graduation, she was listed in the Patriot League's All-Decade and 25th Anniversary women's tennis teams.{{cite web |title=Patriot League Announces All-Decade Women's Tennis Team |url=https://patriotleague.org/news/2001/7/9/Patriot_League_Announces_All_Decade_Women_s_Tennis_Team.aspx |website=Patriot League |access-date=30 March 2022 |language=en |date=July 9, 2001}}
Blatty was also the first female boxer competing for West Point, winning her first match against Lock Haven University in 2000. Her coaches said her boxing and tennis training helped each other.{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=Jim |title=No guts, no glory: Portrait of a two-sport athlete |work=Pointer View |publisher=United States Military Academy |date=March 17, 2000 |page=18}}
After graduation, Blatty served as a platoon leader in the 92nd Engineer Battalion.{{cite web |last1=Smithson |first1=Aline |title=JT Blatty: Snapshots Sent Home, Afghanistan 2002 (Part 1) |url=http://lenscratch.com/2013/04/jt-blatty-snapshots-sent-home/ |website=LENSCRATCH |access-date=30 March 2022 |date=12 April 2013}} She was among the first troops deployed into the 2002 United States invasion of Afghanistan, and afterwards in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. By 2005 she was a captain, and rear detachment commander for the 92nd.{{cite news |last1=Heininger |first1=Claire |title=Soldier's relatives haunted by slaying |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2005-06-17-0506170171-story.html |access-date=31 March 2022 |work=Chicago Tribune |date=June 17, 2005 |language=en}} She served a total of six years in the United States Army.
Photojournalism
As an amateur photographer before military service, she continued to take photographs throughout her deployments, and send rolls of film and exposed disposable cameras home to her family. It was in Afghanistan that she says that she became drawn to capturing the world around her; she tried to turn her story and photographs into a book, and wrote 30,000 words before pausing.{{cite web |last1=Blatty |first1=J.T. |title=Six Talented Military-Connected Women Writers |url=https://booksmakeadifference.com/writeaway-finalists/ |website=Books Make a Difference |date=2 September 2018}} Blatty had been stationed at Fort Stewart during her army career, and stayed in Savannah, Georgia afterwards, coaching tennis and doing freelance photography and writing.{{cite web |last1=Blatty |first1=JT |title=About JT |url=https://jtblatty.com/about%20JT/ |website=jtblatty.com |access-date=30 March 2022 |archive-date=14 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514072342/https://jtblatty.com/about%20JT/ |url-status=dead }} She credits Zig Jackson, documentary photographer and professor at Savannah College of Art & Design, who attended her first exhibition in 2006, for urging her to hone her craft by learning the darkroom, and taking a 2009 internship with National Geographic Traveler.{{cite web |last1=Allie |first1=Renee |title=Photographer's Profile: J.T. Blatty |url=http://neworleansphotoalliance.blogspot.com/2015/09/photographers-profile-jt-blatty-by.html |access-date=4 April 2022 |language=en |date=September 28, 2015}} In 2010, she published Who Dat Nation, a book of photographs documenting the euphoria after the New Orleans Saints football team winning Super Bowl XLIV, some of which were also published in the Traveler.{{cite book |last1=Blatty |first1=J. T. |title=Who Dat Nation : a story about our city and the day hell froze over |date=2010 |publisher=The Author |location=[New Orleans, La.] |isbn=978-0615422206}}{{cite news |last1=Blatty |first1=J.T. |title=Photo Gallery: Who Dat Nation - Intelligent Travel Blog |url=http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2010/02/who-dat-nation.html |access-date=4 April 2022 |work=National Geographic Traveler |date=14 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100214004724/http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2010/02/who-dat-nation.html |archive-date=February 14, 2010}}
Starting in 2011, Blatty took courses at the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), getting a certificate in 2013. After her CDS courses, she also became a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Disaster Reservist Photographer.
Piles of debris line the side of the roads in flood affected areas one week after the 2016 severe flooding in Baton Rouge, La. - DPLA - f6f4bd0b85e8265bac0ff390a85326e0.jpg | Piles of debris line the side of the roads in flood affected areas one week after the 2016 severe flooding in Baton Rouge
A crumbled section of LA-10 near Clinton, La, in St. Helena Parish, one month after the 2016 historic flooding. - DPLA - 6d430cff0d72bf1f1c32119a8bc22c6e.jpg | A crumbled section of LA 10 near Clinton, Louisiana, one month after 2016 flooding
File:Farmer Ricky Roussel (right) describes the loss of his soybean crops to Randolph Johnson, Jr. (center), Louisiana Assistant State Conservationist for the USDA, and visiting Assistan - DPLA - 0e9b1375b48f58db229fa8a7f975ecd9.jpg | A farmer describes the loss of his crops, Sept 13, 2016
FEMA - DSC7043 -Big Pine Key neighborhood devastated by Irma.jpg | Remains of a neighborhood destroyed by Hurricane Irma Sept. 20, 2017
FEMA - DSC9100 - Car mixed in with hurricane debris in the Lower Matecumbe Key community of Monroe county, Florida.jpg | Remains of a car on the side of Overseas Highway, following Irma, Oct. 10, 2017
Blatty made several fine art photography exhibitions at the Martine Chaisson gallery in New Orleans. "Parallel" was a 2012 exhibit of fossils displayed on nudes.{{cite web |title=Blatty's "Parallel" exhibit at Marie Chaisson gallery through June 30 |url=https://neworleansphotoalliance.org/blattys-parallel-exhibit-at-marie-chaisson-gallery-through-june-30/ |website=New Orleans Photo Alliance |access-date=31 March 2022 |date=May 2012}} "Happy Dogs" was a 2015 exhibit of motion blur photographs of colorful light traces left by active dogs at night;{{cite web |last1=Smithson |first1=Aline |title=JT Blatty: Happy Dogs |url=https://lenscratch.com/2015/05/jt-blatty-happy-dogs/ |website=LENSCRATCH |access-date=31 March 2022 |date=8 May 2015}} 10% of its profits went to dog rescue missions.{{cite news |last1=Bookhardt |first1=D. Eric |title=Happy Dogs and Etchynpufe |url=https://issuu.com/gambitneworleans/docs/052615/42 |access-date=31 March 2022 |work=Gambit |issue=21 |date=May 26, 2015 |volume=36 |page=42 |language=en}}
In September 2018, Blatty published Fish Town: Down the Road to Louisiana's Fishing Communities (George F. Thompson Publishing, {{isbn|9781938086519}}). It was a 200-page book with 137 color photographs taken over six years, mostly in St. Bernard, Tangipahoa and Plaquemines parishes, with recollections from the people of the coastal communities sustained by fishing.{{cite news |last1=Tsomondo |first1=Dzana |title=An Intimate Portrait of Louisiana's Commercial Fishing Communities |url=https://pdnonline.com/features/photo-books/an-intimate-portrait-of-louisianas-commercial-fishing-communities/ |access-date=30 March 2022 |work=Photo District News |date=21 October 2018 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=In Louisiana's Fishing Villages, Food and Faith Are Found in the Water |url=https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2018/12/19/louisianas-fishing-villages-food-faith-found-water/viewings/glimpses/ |website=Zócalo Public Square |date=19 December 2018}}{{cite web |title=PhotoNOLA Photobook Fair |url=https://photonola.org/event/photonola-photobook-fair/ |website=PhotoNOLA |access-date=30 March 2022}} It won the Bronze for Best Regional Non-Fiction (South) from the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2020.{{cite web |last1=Roberts |first1=Allison |title=2020 Medalists |url=https://ippyawards.com/blog/2020-medalists |website=Independent Publisher Book Awards |access-date=27 February 2025 |date=1 October 2020}} Its release was accompanied by an exhibition of the photographs in the book at the Martine Chaisson gallery.{{cite web |last1=Raborn |first1=Dillon |title=Taking Notice: JT Blatty at Martine Chaisson Gallery |url=http://pelicanbomb.com/art-review/2018/taking-notice-jt-blatty-at-martine-chaisson-gallery |website=Pelican Bomb |access-date=30 March 2022 |language=en |date=October 12, 2018}} Blatty had written a story about the collapse of regional fisheries for Connect Savannah magazine in 2008, but went back to her home state for this long-term project.
= Ukraine =
File:Dmytro Lavrenchuk and J.T. Blatty.jpg
After finishing Fish Town in 2018, Blatty spent a month as an embedded journalist among the volunteer Ukrainian soldiers of the war in Donbas.{{cite news |last1=Galin |first1=Reed |title=The Ukrainian Soldiers Who Can't Rest {{!}} PDN Photo of the Day |url=https://potd.pdnonline.com/2020/01/17/58631/ |access-date=31 March 2022 |date=17 January 2020}}{{cite web |title=JT Blatty: A New Chapter |url=https://booksmakeadifference.com/jt-blatty/ |website=Books Make a Difference |access-date=31 March 2022 |date=1 January 2019}} Her photos and recorded oral histories became an exhibition titled "Frontline / Peace Life: Ukraine’s Revolutionaries of the Forgotten War", which was presented at the Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago in May 2019, and the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York City in 2020.{{cite web |title=Frontline / Peace Life: Ukraine's Revolutionaries of the Forgotten War |url=https://ukrainianinstitute.org/event/frontline-peace-life-ukraines-revolutionaries-of-the-forgotten-war/ |publisher=Ukrainian Institute of America |access-date=31 March 2022 |date=January 16, 2020}} Dmytro Lavrenchuk and Alina Viatina, Ukrainian veterans from the photos, accompanied Blatty to the exhibitions to tell their stories in person.{{cite news |last1=Ripecky |first1=Andrew |title=Photo exhibit documents volunteer soldiers of Ukraine's "forgotten war" in the Donbas |url=http://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/photo-exhibit-documents-volunteer-soldiers-of-ukraines-forgotten-war-in-the-donbas/ |access-date=31 March 2022 |work=The Ukrainian Weekly |date=June 7, 2019}} The project was a finalist for the 2019 Lange-Taylor Prize for documentary photography.{{cite web |title=2019 Lange–Taylor Prize: Chinen Aimi, "Finding Ryukyu" {{!}} Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University |url=https://documentarystudies.duke.edu/projects/2019-lange%E2%80%93taylor-prize-chinen-aimi-finding-ryukyu |website=Center for Documentary Studies |access-date=31 March 2022 |archive-date=26 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026132136/https://documentarystudies.duke.edu/projects/2019-lange%E2%80%93taylor-prize-chinen-aimi-finding-ryukyu |url-status=dead }}
Blatty returned to photograph Ukraine veterans regularly over the next years, including with West Point classmate and veteran activist Dylan Tete and former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Bob McDonald.{{cite news |last1=Maksymenko |first1=Olena |title=Kyiv museum presents exhibit dedicated to Mark Paslawsky |url=https://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/kyiv-museum-presents-exhibit-dedicated-to-mark-paslawsky/ |work=The Ukrainian Weekly |date=October 11, 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Bob |first1=McDonald |author1-link=Bob McDonald (businessman) |title=Re-Cap On Trip To Ukraine To Help Improve Its Care For Veterans |url=https://www.robertmcdonald.com/bob-mcdonald-ukraine-visit/ |access-date=4 April 2022 |date=12 August 2019}} In November 2020, Blatty received the 2020-21 Fulbright Program U.S. Scholar Award to Ukraine, which she used to continue documenting Ukraine's volunteer soldiers, the latest project to be called "Transition Within Conflict and Across Borders".{{cite news |title=Fulbright U. S. Student Program |url=https://issuu.com/fulbright-ukraine/docs/us_fulbrighters_2021-22/24 |access-date=31 March 2022 |work=Fulbright Ukraine |issue=33 |publisher=Fulbright Program |page=24}} In November 2021, she appeared on the third season of Ukrainian reality television program Крутий Заміс, about veterans starting businesses.{{cite news |title="Крутий Заміс": український документальний проєкт про ветеранів АТО виходить на міжнародний рівень|trans-title="Cool Party": Ukrainian documentary project about anti-terrorist operation veterans reaches the international level |url=http://broadcast.net.ua/ru/tv/5322-krutyi-zamis-ukrainskyi-dokumentalnyi-proiekt-pro-veteraniv-ato-vykhodyt-na-mizhnarodnyi-riven |access-date=31 March 2022 |work=Broadcast |date=November 9, 2021 |language=uk}}
Blatty's book Snapshots Sent Home: From Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine - A Memoir was published by Elva Resa Publishing on February 20, 2024 ({{isbn|978-1934617816}}).{{cite web |last1=Blatty |first1=J. T. |title=Snapshots Sent Home: From Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine―A Memoir |url=https://www.amazon.com/Snapshots-Sent-Home-Afghanistan-Ukraine_A/dp/1934617814/ |website=Amazon.com |publisher=Elva Resa Publishing |access-date=20 March 2024 |language=English |date=20 February 2024}}
It is a memoir, partially of her experiences serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, but centering on her time photographing the Russo-Ukrainian war, and interviewing the veterans there.{{cite news |last1=O'Dowd |first1=Peter |last2=Perkins Mastromarino |first2=James |title='Snapshots Sent Home' focuses on Ukraine and the bond shared by war veterans |url=https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2024/02/21/snapshots-sent-home |access-date=20 March 2024 |work=Here and Now |date=21 February 2024 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Tsurkan |first1=Kate |title=US veteran and photographer’s wartime Ukraine memoir tests notion of ‘universal’ truths |url=https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/us-veteran-and-photographer-s-wartime-ukraine-memoir-tests-notion-of-universal-truths/ar-BB1jYxVO |access-date=20 March 2024 |work=Kyiv Independent |publisher=MSN |date=March 15, 2024}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{official website|jtblatty.com}}
{{commons category|J.T. Blatty}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blatty, J. T.}}
Category:American photojournalists
Category:21st-century American women photographers
Category:21st-century American photographers
Category:College women's tennis players in the United States
Category:United States Military Academy alumni
Category:Military personnel from Louisiana
Category:Female United States Army officers
Category:Writers from New Orleans
Category:American women photojournalists
Category:21st-century American women journalists