JILL FINEBERG

Jill Fineberg was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She graduated from The University of Georgia Journalism School, was a Special Student in the Rochester Institute of Technology Photography program, and interned at the George Eastman House in Rochester. 

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Jill enjoyed a professional career for many years in New York City as an entertainment photographer, covering live concerts for Diana Ross, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Prince, and Anita O’Day, as well as shooting Broadway shows and professional ballet. Her work has been published in Time, Newsweek, People, Bark Magazine, After Dark, Dance Magazine, and Modern Dog, among others. As a commercial assignment photographer, Fineberg has worked for magazines, such as Mothering, Common Boundary, New Mexico Magazine, Woman’s World, Instructor, The Sun, and Family Weekly, and companies including AT&T, Miles Pharmaceuticals, IBM, Learning Forum/Supercamp, and the Whitney Museum. She also worked as a photo editor for the Associated Press, Gamma-Liaison Picture Agency, and Harper & Row Publishers. 

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Upon moving to New Mexico in 1983, Fineberg focused her skills as an intuitive energy bodyworker, and became certified as a grief counselor. Her book, PEOPLE I SLEEP WITH, began with an intimate image she took of her mother, Mickey, in bed with her beloved Chihuahua, Sophie, early one Alabama morning. Fineberg put the project aside for some years, but following the deaths of her mother and Sophie (exactly two weeks apart), and the death of her longtime kitty companion, Miracle Maxine, she revived the idea.

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Shortly after Maxine’s death, the neighborhood “kitty newsletter” spread the word about the vacancy in Jill’s home. Soon, eight cats began circling her property, gazing longingly into the windows, auditioning. One handsome long-haired gray cat walked over the threshold one day and claimed his place in her home. She calls him Mr. Studmuffin. A few months later a bodywork client walked in with a yellow marmalade male kitten, with behaviors suspiciously close to Maxine’s; this mischief maker is called Bamboo. And, finally, Jill rescued a small, white, part Italian greyhound/part Chihuahua she named Audrey Hepburn, undoubtedly the reincarnation of her mother’s dog Sophie. They have all made deep heart-space for each other and, of course, all sleep in the bed with Jill, who often says she is part of a pack.

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Jill has been blessed with many forms of creative expression and opportunities for service. This multi-dimensional website is a reflection of how her life has always been lived. As a double Gemini, she has the versatility, vision, and ability to hold and track many details at once, while her Scorpio moon provides the depth and perception of her artistic vision, with submersion into the Mystery. 

 

Fineberg happily lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which provides her a sense of place and spaciousness that supports her Spirit.