Jennifer Garza-Cuen was born and lived her early childhood in Seattle, Washington. During her teenage years she lived in the San Francisco area. She traveled extensively throughout Latin America and it was during these travels that the desire to document and interpret what she saw through the medium of photography took root. Jennifer’s first project was to photograph the indigenous people she encountered during her travels in South and Central America.
She returned to the United States and studied ‘Black and White Photography’, then moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where she continued her study of Art & Photography at the Instituto Allende. Garza-Cuen’s fascination with foreign cultures led her to choose the ‘American University of Cairo’ for her undergraduate education. After three years of study she graduated ‘summa cum laude’ from American University of Cairo, Egypt in 2001. While her degree was in Literature, she continued to pursue her photography, creating a series on ‘Old Cairo’ some of which were published in Traveller Magazine, London 2002 Garza-Cuen moved to London after graduation where she worked as a assistant press officer at Tate Museum and understudied several professional photographers including celebrity portrait photographer Rankin. After nearly fifteen years of living abroad she recently returned to the United States and at the moment resides in Reno, Nevada. Presently, she is working on a book project called ‘Cocktails’ featuring Casino Cocktail Waitresses and pursuing her MFA in Photography at UNR.
