‘Eden’ is part of a larger project entitled ‘Wandering In Place’, which depicts a series of locations in the United States as a residue of my cultural memory, an inheritance. It is a metaphorical memoir, a narrative re-telling of facts and fictions and it is also my discovery of the dreamland that still is America. ~ It was a great aunt on her father’s side whose people settled in Eden. Located in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Eden appears a quiet community of Adventists, Mennonites and Quakers, where dairy farmers, mill workers and craftsmen gather at the general stores, dinners are served in old wooden churches and dances are held at the local Grange Hall. The rivers of Eden all spring from Eden and the views are as ravishing as the garden from which it takes its name. But it is also a hard and rugged place, where resourceful and independent inhabitants still labor stoically, as their ancestors before them.
Jennifer Garza-Cuen is a photographer from the Pacific Northwest. She received her MFA in photography and MA in the History of Art and Visual Culture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her BA in comparative literature was completed at the American University in Cairo. During both years of her attendance at RISD, she received the prestigious RISD GS competitive grant. She was also awarded the Daniel Clarke Johnson, the Henry Wolf, and the Patricia Smith Scholarships. Additionally, she has received fellowships to attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Oxbow, Brush Creek, and Hambidge. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, published in contemporary photography journals such as Blink, The Photo Review, and Conveyor Magazine as well as on-line journals such as Conscientious, Feature Shoot, Aint-Bad, iGNANT, Dazed, Fubiz, and Juxtapoz.
Website: deadpanphotography.com
