BIOGRAPHY

Born in São Paulo, Brazil.

Lives in New Jersey, U.S.



Jennifer Cabral is a photographer and visual artist. She holds a BFA from two brazilian institutions: School of Fine Arts Escola Guignard with a concentration in Photography, and a BFA in Social Communications from PUC-Minas.

a member of National Press Photographer Association, she started freelancing for newspapers in central New Jersey in 2002 and has been an independent photographer for over 20 years. Her darkroom printing expertise was used to reproduce negatives from archives such as The New York Times, Vanity Fair and Vogue in silver-gelatin and pigment prints.

In 2022, She received a Master of Information degree from Rutgers University School of Communication with a concentration in Archives and Preservation. Her studies focused on potentialities brought into collections when photography and archives intertwine. Cabral is currently a Library Collection Photographer documenting cultural heritage manuscripts and ARCHIVES.


 

Artist Statement

“My explorations in photography may be anchored in documentation and printing, but it is the word that directs my artistic work. I often incorporate adjectives, nouns and verbs into photographs as I seek to understand my own feelings and experiences. In my attempts to approach broader issues such as immigration, racism or the environmental crisis, what is revealed are my own stories. From universal themes personal layers emerge, and I become vulnerably exposed.

My practice fluctuates between many themes as the collective accidentally collides with times and spaces I happen to occupy. As the mediums and formats I explore expand in my later works, the camera becomes enriched by archives and data. To build my narratives imagery and text intertwine to fully convey what I attempt to portray.”

~ Jennifer Cabral

 


Selected PARTICIPATIONS

Jennifer Cabral’s work has been featured in publications and institutions in the U.S. and Brazil. Some participations include:

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

UPCOMING - La.Ima. América Latina - La.bo transatlantique de création & d'ima.ges, Paris. (June 2024).

Edith Cowan University - Gallery 25, Australia (April 26th - May 29th 2024) | Murmur Contemporary Experimental Projection Space, Montreux, Switzerland. (April 6th-May 4th, 2024) | “Como uma Onda”, Casa Tao Brasil - Rio de Janeiro (April 4th - May 4th, 2024) | Der Greif Guest Room Curation by Renée Mussai and Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński (April 2024) | 13* Festival de Fotografia de Tiradentes - Projecao “Dialogos da Terra”, Minas Gerais, Brasil (2024) | “Como uma Onda”, Galeria Atelie Oriente at 13* Festival de Fotografia de Tiradentes, Minas Gerais, Brasil (2024) | Czong Institute for Contemporary Art - CICA (2023) | “Sonhar Futuro”, Galeria Atelie Oriente at 12* Festival de Fotografia de Tiradentes, Minas Gerais, Brasil (2023) | Mercer County Photography 2022 | YMCA Fundraising (2022) | The Road Home, JKC Gallery, NJ (2022) | 11* Festival de Fotografia de Tiradentes, Minas Gerais, Brasil (2022) | Sutured Resilience, Artworks Gallery, NJ | 10* Festival de Fotografia de Tiradentes, Minas Gerais, Brasil (2021) | “Unique minds, Creative voices”, Princeton University Graduate School 2021 & 2020 | “From Within”, Princeton University, Center for Collaborative History | Extra-Sensorial Perception: A Feminist Art & Variety Show, Brooklyn | New York Historical Society, NYC | National September 11 Memorial & Museum, NYC | D&R Greenway Land Trust, NJ |  Plainsboro Historical Society Museum, NJ | Arts for Peace Gallery, NYC | Mercer County Photography (2017) | Mercer County Photography (2015) (Honorable Mention) | Escola Guignard - Universidade Estadual de Minas Gerais, Brazil.

COLLECTION Princeton University Library Graphic Arts Collection

ARTIST TALKS Real Photo Show Podcast w/ Michael Chovin-Dalton | JKCGallery - Mercer County Community College, NJ 2023) | Artworks Trenton (2020) | Princeton University Spanish & Portuguese Department (SPO Princeton) (2019)

BOOK Here is New York - Publisher Scala (2001)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS Sete Dias Depois - PUC-Minas, Belo Horizonte, Brasil (2011) | Sections, Gallery "Letras & Expressoes", Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (2001)

CULTURAL PROJECTS “Məmentō Proyecto” at MACPR - Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico | Arte Postal - Municipal Law for Cultural Incentive, BH, Brasil | Contaminações - Seminar on Contemporary Art, Workshops and exhibitions, Federal University of Minas Gerais

AWARDS Brazil New Visions Film Festival 2024 - Honorable Mention (Recife, PE - Brazil) | 2023 Pupila Film Festival – Best Experimental Short Award (PE - Brazil) | T.I.F.A - Tiete International Film Awards (SP - Brazil) - Bronze Tilapia Social Impact Award 2023 | 1st Flávio Migliaccio Festival (RJ - Brazil) - Second Place in the Experimental Film category (2023) | 2021 Rutgers University Outstanding Academic Achievement - School of Communication - Master of Information, New Jersey, USA. | 2019 Latin American Photography 8, New York, USA. | Hariban Award 2019 - Shortlisted, Kyoto, Japan. | Revele BH - (Honorable Mention), Belo Horizonte, Brasil. | Premio Mario de Andrade - Short Stories - Honorable Mention, PUC-Minas, Brasil.  

CLIENTS & PUBLICATIONS Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature (ISSN: 2690-7089) , Syracuse University. | School of Communication Interview, Rutgers University. | Artist Talk - Issue #15, England. | Contemporary Identities - Journal in Art Criticism - Issue #7 | Ladies Drawing Club - Issue #4 part 2, Saint Petersburg, Russia | Landscape Stories Blog - Issue #30 Archive | Der Greif - Guest Room online feature, Germany | Urbanautica - Extinction. Or the World without us? (Special Mention) online feature, Italy. | Shades Collective - Take our seat interview series | Editora Trip - Revista TPM, Brasil. | El Pais, Spain. | Princeton University | Princeton Packet Publications - Register News, Messenger Press | Town Topics Newspaper | American Repertory Ballet Princeton School | SHAC-NJ | Jornal Diario da Tarde | Jornal Estado de Minas | Jornal O Tempo | Jornal Hoje em Dia

CERTIFICATIONS & ASSOCIATIONS: NPPA - National Press Photographers Association | Phase ONE Certified Professional | ImageMuse - Cultural Heritage Imaging Group | Anthroposophical Society | Mulheres Luz - Brazilian Women in Photography Collective.




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Photo by Eugene Pierce.

Photo by Eugene Pierce.

MY STORY

“I am a photographer. But before I ever intended to work with a camera, an invisible force pulled me towards libraries. I learned books were safe. No. Books were friends. I was ten. Fast forward Forty years, and That gravitational force Didn’t stop. Books became my subjects. I am now a Library Collection Photographer. Some days I feel I can not only photograph a book, but write one too. Life has funny ways to make you try different things. In 2016, I became a cancer apprentice. I didn’t write a book about it. Just a blog. I haven’t written only that chapter. There are other writings. Just like I don't photograph only books. There are other photographs. There is also another photographer in this story. The one I married. We live outside of Princeton, New Jersey, at a place once called Maidenhead. Which reminds me… Once upon a time, my return address was Belo Horizonte. That’s according to the legend. It starts like this: “I was born in Brazil. There was a full moon. It was a Tuesday.”  

- Jennifer Cabral

Selected WRITINGs in Photography and Archives

 

Essay and Video: Memories and Virtual Reality. Virtual experiences and the creation of memories. - Watch Video | Read transcript

“With VR technology our own experiences will not be the exclusive sources of our memories, machines will be, too. And as Virtual Reality evolves, memories will no longer be created by us, but for us.”

Paper Title: Passport, Birth Certificate and Destiny. - Download PDF

“Time of death is fundamental for life insurance purposes, investigations and accidental deaths. But, I rather be preoccupied with my time of birth than the unpredictable and hopefully remote time of my death. I was told I was born on a Tuesday during a Full moon, exactly at 4:00 AM in the morning. But this document changes everything. (…) My personality and destiny will now be interpreted differently.”

Essay and Video: Cyanotypes and the first photo book. - Watch Video | Download PDF

Because it is one of the most simple and easy photographic printing methods to master, and also cheaper than expensive silver, or platinum-based photographic processes, cyanotypes became very popular amongst amateur photographers and also a cheap proofing process for collodion, dry gelatin plates and gelatin roll film before making a final print. It's the only method from the first decade of photography to have survived in active use well into the twentieth century.

Essay and Video: A Summary of Along the Archival Grain by Ann Laura Stoler. - Watch Video | Download PDF

“Stoler traced rumors that traveled around the Dutch empire and were registered in the archive. She believes rumor is a key form of cultural knowledge. According to Stoler, it opens a window into the imaginary and stereotypes. It reveals the blurrier boundaries of events that actually took place and those who never happened, between violence acted out and violence only intended.”

Online Curation: Capturing Feathers. An Imaging Journal of Digitized Collections at Princeton University - Visit exhibition

“this pictorial journal of bird imagery also became a metaphor on the relevance of interdisciplinary collection practices and the potential of institutional repositories as portals of representation, identity, and inclusion. Multi-cultural representation and appropriation of bird imagery became an interesting exploration of the potential to construct narratives and identity within a digital repository.”



“MI Student Proposes “Capturing Feathers”: A Novel Online Exhibition of Princeton University's Rare Bird Images” - Read interview featured by Rutgers University School of Communication and Information.

Project and accompanying paper: Stereoscopic Archive: Preservation or Perpetration of Histories?. - Access Project | Download PDF

“Introduced commercially in the United States in 1854, for the next half a century it became a way of life in popular culture. From 1850’s to 1930’s stereoscopic photography became a sensation. not unlike movies, radio and television that would follow it, stereoscopic photographs became a favorite past time.”

Public Domain Initiative: Coloring Feathers. Birds from Princeton University Library Digital Collections. - Download Coloring Book

“These coloring pages were created in collaboration with The Cotsen Children's Library, a unit within the Department of Special Collections at Princeton University Library during the annual social media event in which libraries, museums, archives and other cultural institutions around the world share free coloring content online with the hashtag #ColorOurCollections .”

Paper Title: Exhibition Analysis. “Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment”. - Download PDF

“As mentioned on a text by Alpers called “The museum as a way of seeing” (1991): “It is only recently that peoples or group nations and even cities have felt that to be represented in a museum was to be given recognition as a culture, therefore giving rise, I supposed, to questions about how to do it right.” I believe the “Nature’s Nation” exhibition and the iterations that accompanied it - the online exhibit and printed catalog - will stand as an example of how to pay cultures the deserved recognition.”

Paper Title: The Whitney: discoverability as a gateway to relevancy. - Download PDF

“Since my interest in art is permeated by photography, I engaged with their database using this medium and its artists as my subjects. But my very first search was very disappointing. Using the advanced search I typed one single word under the medium field: “photography”. And the result was: “No matching works”. When I used the word “photograph” it resulted in 73 works of art. An inaccurate representation of The Whitney’s actual photography collection.”

Paper Title: In between hands: W. Eugene Smith’s study on hands and the creation of an artifact. - Download PDF

“I hope to present a slice of W.Eugene Smith’s creative process that will function as a mirroring to his photography endeavors which often took such epic proportions and permeated his career and personal life in a seamless continuity.”

Paper Title: “Lewis Hine at NYPL: the critique of a photographer’s finding aid” - Download PDF

The significant role of Lewis Hine in photography and, in particular, as his role in spearheading social change through the use of photography should be a motive for further description and digitization efforts to be applied to this archive. In his own words, Hine shows his commitment to the cause of social justice:

“Followed child labor for nearly twenty years – through the Carolinas, Canneries, Homework, Glass and Textiles, Beet and Cotton-fields, – all from Coast to Coast. All through, – Investigation and Research loomed large, – the photography involving difficult situations with personalities and light conditions.  Ever; – the Human Document to keep the present and future in touch with the past.”

Paper Title: Princeton University Art Museum and the creation of a Photographic Collection. - Download PDF

“McAlpin’s photography collection stemmed from his friendship with Stieglitz and O’keefe. He became interested in the art of photography and in 1936 he started collecting original prints by Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Brett Weston and Edward Weston. By 1966, he donated over 300 photographs to the Museum of Modern Art. (…) In 1971, all remaining prints of McAlpin’s photography collection were offered to Princeton. The group of over 500 photographs remains as the Museum’s core holding in this creative medium.”

Paper Title: Pajaros in the Ivory Tower. Graciela Iturbide at Princeton University Art Museum exhibitions. - Download PDF

“The need to create a representation of what is true so the viewer can experience it, and the subject of the photograph can find representation of oneself, is viewed as an unattainable illusion. For Iturbide, truth is relative since, as a photographer, she sees herself constructing and interpreting reality at all times.”

Paper Title: Beyond Pages. The evolution of Aperture Magazine. - Download PDF

“(…) the first issue of Aperture, a photography publication released in 1952 by a cadre of photographers that were establishing a name for themselves not only among fellow photographers but in the American art scene. For over six decades, the magazine they created has been a reference for the field of photography. This paper will explore the relevance of this quarterly photography journal in the dissemination of knowledge in this particular community of practice.”

 

Paper Title: “Finding Rudolph Valentino: The Journey of a Latin Lover. A review of NYPL reference Services in genealogy research” - Download PDF

“Analyzing the archival accessibility of the Digital Repository at the New York Public Library and evaluating its remote reference services for its support of genealogy research against the background of historical records documenting the arrival of a Brazilian immigrant to the United States exemplifies how NYPL allow its patrons to explore genealogy as a research practice that goes beyond mere deaths and births.”

Essay and Video: Reviewing Umberto Eco’s “The Infinity of the Lists. - Watch Video | Download PDF

“There are a total of 1.003 lists in this book. So, the book itself might feels infinite for some. Lists, many times fantastic in nature, were grabbed from classic literature and artworks from the Louvre’s holdings in Paris. Just to give you a perspective, I was on a train to New York coincidentally during Comic Con weekend and a cartoonist literally pulled the book out of my hands to look at it. It is an irresistible feast to a visual person.”


Rutgers State University. Department of Communications & Information.

Master of Information. Concentration: Archives and Preservation. Class of 2022.