ABOUT
Based out of North London, Jennifer Kaplan-Ortiz is a Puerto Rican artist with a focus in photography and mixed media based projects. With a shared PASSION fOr travel and Documentary PHOTOGRAPHY, her PERSONAL aNd COMMISSIONED work, is focused on the beauty and simplicity Of fleeting moments.
For the past 4 years her personal work has mainly revolved around ‘Pelo Malo’ or ‘Bad Hair’, a term used in Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries to describe curly and Afro-Caribbean hair. These hair types are often viewed as an unattractive quality, prompting women, including herself, to subject themselves to extreme measures and processes to achieve an idealized look of straight hair from an early age. This series is focused on women affected by this stigma, especially within the Black and Latin American communities and how these depictions of beauty raise deeper issues, such as racial and gender discrimination. These beautiful yet equally grotesque pieces explore the beauty of hair types, while acknowledging the ugly truths that often lie beneath.
