JR Pepper is a Brooklyn born-and-raised artist and professional eccentric. She holds both a BA and an MA in art history, specializing in Surrealism and the history of photography.  Her artwork has been seen in shows through  Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Group, Gristle Tattoo Gallery, Rogue Space Gallery Chelsea, Trenton Artworks, Greenpoint Gallery, The Jefferson Market Library,  Babylon New York curated by Leonardo Casas,  and various gallery shows in NY, Paris and Chile.

​

Various websites and publications have featured her spirit photographs and her lectures including  About.com, Kotaku, and VICE: The Creator's Project, The General Manga Initiative, The Village Voice, Haunted America FAQ by Dave Thompson, Musee Magazine and Chilean fanzine Estrellita Mia. She is a credited retoucher/image restoration on  Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas (seriously), Walter Potter's Curious World of Taxidermy, The Morbid Anatomy Anthology, multiple albums by Zilmrah and multiple publications with The Burns Archive including the award-winning Picturing Freedom. Professionally, she spent 15 years working in fashion and advertising working on archival management, image licensing and photo research for  publications by Annie Leibowitz, Roni Horn, Guy Bourdin, Taaschen, THe Brooklyn Museum and many others.  Formerly a writer for Creepy Girl Travels and Pink Ray Gun,  she also spent many years working with the Morbid Anatomy Library and Museum.

​

JR Pepper lectures regularly at Brooklyn Brainery,  Odd Salon NY,  The Dead Ladies Show and The House of Know at The Flying Fox. She has spoken at numerous panels and conventions including NY Anime Fest, Salon Con, New York Comic Con, Tokyo in Tulsa, Haunt Faire, Morbid Anatomy Museum, and The Southern Sideshow Hootenanny. More recently she was an instructor for spirit photography and cyanotype workshops with Atlas Obscura. 

 

Her other credits include horror writer, video game voiceover artist, back up/solo singer (at Don't Tell Mama and the Triad Theatre in NYC). Pepper is also a licensed and registered minister and member of the Association for Gravestone Studies and Save Our Cemeteries.

​

Pepper works a variety of jobs but is a proud adjunct professor at CUNY Brooklyn College, Digital Imaging Specialist for The Burns Archive, and  a Goth-tour guide at Brooklyn's own Green-Wood Cemetery. Her first book;  Buried Boston: America's Revolutionary Necropolis,-a photo essay about the many burying grounds and cemeteries of the Boston area-  will be released summer of 2024.

​

All work on the following pages is available for licensing, to license photographs or imagery from JR Pepper please email girlduality82@gmail.com. NONE of the images on this page are to be sold, or used in any publication, website or media without expressed written permission of JR Pepper. 

​