// Florida Grown //

Florida Grown is an ongoing series documenting my nieces growing up in central Florida in a similar conservative environment as I did. While looking at the progressive fade of the mystique of childhood, I am also reexamining my own childhood through my nieces’ experience. Their religious upbringing is explored against a suburban setting, a landscape that always seems to be in conflict with the wild, natural world. The portraits reflect my discomfort with the expectations, ideas of femininity and gender roles placed on them. Over the past 10+ years as the five girls have grown into adolescence, I’ve also evolved as a photographer, shifting in style and format -- a process that works in tandem with the girls’ own development.

Jenica Heintzelman is a Guatemalan-American photographer born and raised in a suburb of Orlando, Florida. She attended Brigham Young University in Utah where she completed her BFA degree in photography and documentary filmmaking. Since moving to New York City in 2010, she has worked as a freelance photographer and studio manager as well as retoucher for the Richard Avedon Foundation. Jenica received her MFA from the Hartford Art School’s International Limited-Residency program in 2020 where she was awarded the Stanley Fellman Award. Currently based in Brooklyn, NY her work explores themes of vulnerability, familial relationships and the notion of healing.

To see more of Jenica’s work, visit her website: www.jenicaheintzelman.com

Or follow along on instagram: @jenicah