Jillian Edelstein graduated the University of Cape Town B.Soc.Sc before starting her career in Photography.

Her work has appeared in international publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The FT Weekend Magazine, Vanity Fair, Interview, Vogue, The Guardian Weekend, The Sunday Times Magazine, Time, Fortune, Forbes, GQ, Esquire.

She has exhibited internationally - National Portrait Gallery, The Photographers' Gallery, The Royal Academy, OXO Gallery in London, Sothebys, Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in France, Bensusan Museum, Robben Island Museum, AVA Gallery in South Africa and Dali International Photography Festival, Yunnan Province, China.

She has received several awards: Kodak UK Young Photographer of the Year, Photographers' Gallery Portrait Photographer of the Year Award, the Visa d’Or at the International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan 1997, the European Final Art Polaroid Award 1999, the John Kobal Book Award 2003 included in The Taylor Wessing Portrait Award twice, the AI-AP Archive in 2008 and 2015. A winner in Latin American Fotografia 4 2015, included in World Press Awards twice, finalist in the 2017 LensCulture Portrait Awards, Honourable Mention Julia Margaret Cameron Award 2020.

Jillian was voted one of the ‘Hundred Heroines’ in December 2018 initiated by The Royal Photographic Society, a list of international women who are transforming photography today.

Between 1996 and 2002 she returned to South Africa to document the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Her award winning book Truth and Lies, was published by Granta in 2002. She worked on the 2012 Olympic Campaign for the National Portrait Campaign. In 2014 the NGO, FXB International celebrated it's 25th anniversary year. Commissioned by the founder, Albina du Boisrouvray, to create a photography exhibition to mark this milestone, Jillian visited nearly 30 of FXB's Village programmes across six countries – Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, China, Colombia and India - in order to produce 25 iconic images that would encapsulate the work on the ground. 'Framing Hope’, the exhibition, was shown at the OXO Gallery on London's South Bank in August 2014, and went on to Sotheby’s in Paris and at Espace Muraille in Geneva . She is currently working on several photographic projects - namely Affinities, Young Men, Worst Fears, Kilburn. Picture Britain, a two year UK project 2018 - 2019 investigating Poverty, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and supported by Comic Relief culminated in a book and show at Borough Market 2019. She is working on a feature length film documentary about the US Academy award nominated screenwriter Norman Wexler whose career was blighted by his BiPolar condition.

Commercial clients include Oxfam, FXB International, Unicef, Save the Children Fund, Tesco, Nespresso, Sony, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aviva, BBC, Comic Relief and Fish Love.