About
JENNIFER SPELMAN
Jennifer Spelman is a documentary photographer based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. She strives for suggestion and allusion, balance and surprise in her images.
Jennifer has worked extensively across Cuba with the Santa Fe Workshops since 2011. In over fifty visits to the island, she's experienced the friendly generosity of a people always willing to share conversation and a cup of coffee. She has come to understand that to be Cuban is to greet adversity with ingenuity, patience and humor. Jennifer is grateful to call some of Havana’s best photographers and most dynamic storytellers good friends. Their work is masterfully timed and generous with suggestions of humor and heart. Through their vivid imagery she first came to appreciate the long tradition of dynamic street photography woven throughout Cuba's history. Life is lived on the streets in Havana and Jennifer is happiest within it's constant motion and layered serendipity.
Jennifer received her photographic training as an assistant with The Santa Fe Workshops, working with some of today’s most preeminent photographers including Norman Mauskopf, Joe McNally and Jay Maisel. Jennifer is a patient educator who has co-instructed with National Geographic Expeditions and taught workshops in Mexico, Japan, India and Cuba. She's grateful to have been a lead instructor on youth photography programs initiated by Sanjhi (NGO: Udaipur, India) and supported by MOPA (Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego) and to have collaborated with Village Science (NGO: Vientiane, Laos). Locally, Jennifer has instructed photography programs with the New Mexico Boy's and Girl's Club and is a Professional Member of ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers).