Born in Cancún and raised in Cozumel, Jimena Horta Ballesteros began her university studies in Visual Arts at the University of Guadalajara. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication from Anáhuac Mayab University and completed a pre-specialization in Film Direction and Production at Anáhuac Mexico University, North Campus.
In 2013, she was invited to join Anáhuac University’s academic excellence program. In 2015 and 2016, she participated in the "Heart of Mexico" Narrative Journalism immersion, a joint program between the University of North Texas and the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico. In 2017, she was selected to attend the international Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico City. In 2018, she completed an intensive professional photography course at the International Center for Photography and Film in Madrid, Spain.
She began taking photographs empirically at the age of sixteen, although she had already asked for her first digital camera as a gift years earlier. Initially, nature and the human figure were the most prominent elements in her work. Her sustained engagement with Mayan communities on the Yucatán Peninsula—spanning over ten years—allowed her to cultivate a unique sensitivity toward issues concerning the social conditions of southeastern Mexico. Thus, documentary photography became her primary interest in interpreting the reality of Mexico. She has received first-place awards at both the university and inter-university levels in the fields of Scientific Photography and Photojournalism within the state of Yucatán.
She was invited to collaborate as a photographer on one of the most significant exhibitions of her documentary and artistic career: *Xmanikté*. This project was the recipient of the Municipal Arts Award in Mérida in 2017. Additionally, she has been recognized with awards for her quantitative research studies on geolocation conducted at Anáhuac Mayab University. In 2016, she was a finalist in the Nikon Interuniversity Competition in Mexico City. The competition involved capturing landscape photography at Nevado de Toluca and, subsequently, at Iztaccíhuatl—the country's third-highest peak, standing at 5,230 meters.
She served as Director of Photography for the short film “Esa no es una licuadora, es mi esposa” (That’s Not a Blender, That's My Wife). This film marked her debut in Filmmaking and served as her thesis project for her university degree; it is a satire exploring how gender roles act as modifiers within romantic relationships. The short film was selected for screening at multiple film festivals in Spain and Mexico. She directed several university documentaries under the guidance of Dr. Alicia Helena Hernández, Coordinator of the Film Specialization program at Anáhuac University. Her writings have been published in online educational journals—such as Pálido Punto de Luz and El Altavoz—and, most recently, by the digital marketing agency Tianguis Creativos.
She has served as an assistant to internationally renowned artists, including documentary photographers Kael Alford and Patricia Aridjis, as well as editorial photographer Pepe Molina. She has also worked as a photography assistant for the artist Silvana Estrada, and as an assistant to Dr. Alicia Helena Hernández at the School of Film at Anáhuac University Mexico North.
She served as a personal red-carpet assistant for Spanish actor Paco León—an actor and film director whose most famous works in Mexico include La Casa de las Flores and Toc Toc. These latter engagements took place during the 3rd Annual Fénix Awards for Ibero-American Cinema in Mexico City in 2016.
She worked as a Multimedia Producer and Content Creator for the Museum of Popular Art in Mexico City, as well as for voice actress Verónica López Treviño—one of the most prominent voices in the Spanish-speaking world across Mexico and Latin America. She has exhibited her artwork in multiple cities throughout Mexico, including her hometown of Cozumel, as well as Mérida and Mexico City. She has participated in group exhibitions addressing social issues, as well as artistic group shows alongside the Ixaya collective—an association established as an initiative to support victims of the September 19 earthquake—of which she was a member from 2017 until early 2019.
Her first exhibition in Mexico City was sponsored by the Film Specialization Program at Anáhuac University Mexico North, under the auspices of Dr. Alicia Hernández Barba, the program’s coordinator.
In 2021, her project SÍIHIL was selected by the international Foundry Program as one of six projects from Latin America and Spain. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Mexico, Spain, Chile, and the United States, and is held in private collections across Mexico, Spain, the United States, and Canada.
Her artistic language has evolved over the years, shifting between documentary observation, symbolism, ambiguity, and emotional perception, transforming fragments of everyday life into layered reflections on memory, perception, and belonging. Rather than approaching photography as objective documentation, she conceives of the medium as a relational and emotional language through which personal experience can expand into collective meaning.
Since 2021, she has resided in Cleveland, Ohio, working as an artist, teaching artist, bilingual organizer, and freelance photographer for various national and international agencies and organizations.