Jennifer Ugarte is a woman who lived most of her life in Guatemala, where she studied marketing and photography. She loves being part of the greater RI community and giving back. She has used her education, skills, and artistic talents to help others.
When Jennifer came to RI a few years ago, she volunteered before officially entering the job market. She became part of RI’s community, donating time at WaterFire and Edgewood Village. Her experiences sent her in a new direction. She realized there were many more opportunities in RI’s nonprofit sector than in the corporate sector. She found being bilingual to be an extremely helpful skill in that space. She also discovered that she liked working at nonprofits.
For Jennifer, photography was at first a means to connect with others during her travels. When she moved to RI from Guatemala, her photography helped her cope with her loneliness. Little by little, it became much more than that. She recalled that the subjects of her creative projects became more “intentional.” This is how she gives back. She learned the power of this medium as a tool to bear witness to and capture meaningful and historic moments. Jennifer found herself documenting celebrations, struggles, activism, advocacy, art, and culture. She photographed people coming together for a common purpose, speaking out, raising awareness, and demanding justice, allowing photos to speak for themselves. She was also drawn to other projects that depicted people celebrating their identity and heritage. She uses her photographs and talent to preserve scenes from life that capture its “beauty, complexity, dignity and humanity.” She found giving back inspiring and rewarding. We are “better humans when we work together.” Her photography speaks for itself with subtlety and grace.
Some of her recent photographic projects are images of the “Graphic Voices of Latin America” at the Water Fire Arts Center. This exhibition of Latin American posters highlighted themes of cultural identity, activism, resistance, and resilience. Jennifer also documented the giant kite workshops led by Guatemalan artist Magda León (see story page xxx). You can view Jennifer’s recent projects at jenniferugarte.com/
In the future, Jennifer would like to explore archival photography more deeply. She finds the prospect of documenting people’s spaces fascinating, along with their histories, and lifestyles. Jennifer would like to preserve those places and details before they disappear.
What does she hope her talents will give the next generation? She wants the next generation of Latino artists like her “to believe in themselves” and have the strength to build, document, and communicate, as she is doing now by capturing images of events she sees in the community.
Jennifer is an empathetic and educated woman. Her character colors her photography. Her images allow her to capture people’s lives, their good works, their history, and their traditions. These images educate the viewer, opening you up to new experiences, culturally and socially. The more we understand other people’s lives and their points of reference, the more we become a real community. In this way, I’d like to think of the images she captures as like the giant kites she photographs, showing us the way and keeping the bad “spirits” at bay.