Ester Jove Soligue, based in New York, was born and raised on a farm in the city of Lleida, Spain. After attending photography classes at EMBA and IEFC in Spain, she moved to the United States and graduated from the ‘Documentary Photography and Photojournalism’ program at the International Center of Photography in New York.
While still at school, she began photographing a community of mainly undocumented immigrants who have made their homes on a cliff along the Hudson River in New Jersey. There she documented their lives, and it was by listening to their personal stories that Ester was inspired to start a new portraiture project focusing on the human struggle of undocumented immigrants to reach American soil.
Her work has been exhibited in Spain at Center for Cultures and Cross-border Cooperation Cappont Campus, Morera Museum, Mercat del Pla Museum, Pardinyes’ Contemporary Culture Centre, Cultural City Centre and ‘Ruta d’Art jove’, and also at ‘Visa off’ in Perpignan, France. In New York City she has exhibited at the International Center of Photography and at Studio 304. Her work has been published in Chasqui magazine and by ICP in Shift Vol. 4.
She has received the ‘Ciudad de Gijón’ scholarship and has won a TV3 award that featured her work on Catalan television and published a group book called ‘Nuevas Miradas’.
Ester has been working with the human rights organizations ‘American Friends Service Committee’ and ‘Wind of the Spirit’.
More of her work may be found at
www.esterjovesoligue.com.
