Jesse Pratt López is an Atlanta-based photographer, activist and community organizer. She is also a proud Trans woman, Latina, and immigrant. She was born in Cali, Colombia and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jesse uses her artwork and platform to visibilize Trans folks, people of color, undocumented folks, HIV+ folks–and all those whose existences are criminalized or erased. Jesse has exhibited work in places such as the Center for Civil and Human Rights and Mason Fine Art in Atlanta. Her work focuses on many aspects of the Queer & Trans experience; she has organized and curated exhibitions including a show with SFQP aiming at destigmatizing and highlighting sex work as not only work, but as an artform. She is also the founder of the Trans Housing Coalition, a project that began as a photography-based crowdfunding campaign, aimed at alleviating chronic homelessness in the TGNC (Trans & Gender Non-Conforming) community in Atlanta.
Although she has worked primarily as a documentarian and photojournalist, her work ranges from experimental digital pieces to introspective large format 4×5 film introspective self portraits. Many of her personal stories dissect gender and the performative role it plays in our society. She believes that identity informs everything in society and that it is almost impossible to separate the art from the artist. Ultimately, she hopes to make photography a more accessible medium.
Jesse has work in private collections in Atlanta and has exhibited in places such as the Center for Civil and Human Rights, Mason Fine Art, and the Savannah College of Art & Design—where she is a candidate for a BFA (2020). She has been published in local print magazines such as Wussy Mag, regional publications such as Scalawag, and national publications, such as: Atlantic Magazine, The Hechinger Report, The Guardian, and Vogue.
