Jennifer Cimino Photography celebrates ten years in business

JCP’s photo booth has become an instant hit

Jenn Cimino is celebrating the tenth year of her business, and it’s onward and upward for the talented, award-winning photojournalist.

“Everybody calls me Jenn, but the business is Jennifer Cimino Photography,” said Jenn, whose father, Patsy, is the well-known owner of The Meat Market at 224 Winthrop Street in Winthrop.

“I worked there growing up through school,” said Jenn, whose mother is Kathy Fauci. “My dad’s been a great role model for me in my business.”

Jennifer Cimino Photography was enjoying tremendous growth in 2019 when she decided to purchase a new photo booth to expand her offerings. But the COVID-19 pandemic hit the area hard and virtually all social gatherings were canceled.

“I literally bought the photo booth right before the pandemic started in February (2020),” said Jenn. “I did one job with the photo booth before the pandemic, and then it was a lull, because clearly no one was holding social events.”

But with the return of indoor and outdoor social gatherings, Jenn’s new photo booth has been in high demand.

“I’ve used the photo booth for birthday parties, christenings, and at a political fundraiser,” said Jenn. “It’s called an open-air photo booth, so it’s not one of those big, clunky ones that you used to set up. It prints color photo strips right on the spot, or you can have the photo text messaged or emailed. It gives you an instant photo. It’s awesome. We love it. It’s been a great addition to the business. Most people just want to post their photo on social media, and the photo booth gives them that immediate option to do that.”

The other aspects of her business are back in high gear. She continues in her role as the official photographer for the Winthrop Youth Football and Cheerleading program and the Revere High School yearbook. She also compiles a year-ending slideshow for the RHS awards banquet and is the dance photographer for Rachel Ferrante’s Academy of Performing Arts.

Family photos, wedding engagement photos, and corporate head shots are also keeping her very busy, while clients have been inquiring about the JCP photo booth for weddings, birthday parties, baby showers, and graduation celebrations.

Making a career decision in 2011

Cimino, 36, decided to open her photography studio in 2011 one year after receiving her graduation certificate from the New England School of Photography. She had previously graduated from Revere High in 2003 and Bentley University in 2007, receiving her degree in Business Management from the outstanding business school in Waltham.

After college, Cimino began working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and decided that, “The business world wasn’t for me. I started pursuing my passion. I had loved photography since I was little.”

Cimino entered the media industry, taking news and sports photographs for the Independent Newspaper Group that includes the Revere Journal and the Winthrop Sun-Transcript. She treated each photograph as a work of art, and the community responded to her excellence, with readers regularly requesting prints of her photos.

She soon opened her own studio in Winthrop and began making connections, notably being hired for the Revere High School yearbook account that entailed taking all RHS senior photographs and shooting action and team photographs for all RHS Patriots’ teams.

Beginning in her craft  in the sixth grade at Lincoln

Jenn Cimino traces her introduction to photography to the sixth grade at the Abraham Lincoln School in Revere.

“I helped with the school yearbook,” recalled Jenn. “I used my dad’s camera – I always had a camera and took photos, and the school published them in the yearbook.”

That affinity for photography grew dramatically at Revere High School. “My photography teacher, Joanne McKenna, really brought my passion of photography to life,” said Jenn. “She was a great mentor and is still a supporter of me pursuing my passion and love of photography.”

Though she didn’t play sports at Revere High School, she took photographs at games, including her own class’ flag football game against North Reading. “I just always had my camera,” she said.

Raising a family in the city of Revere

Jenn Cimino, who is married to Keith Hallissey, has a stepdaughter Grace, a two-year-old son, Johnny, and a nine-month-old son, Max. The family resides in Revere.

“It’s busy, but I still love doing what I do,” said Jenn. “The business continues to grow and we’re booking a lot of events through Facebook and Instagram and word-of-mouth.”

The busy times haven’t kept her away from her other passion: the Boston Bruins.

“We love the Bruins, and we’re still season ticket holders,” said Jenn. “Our seats are three rows behind the goalie. I’ve been to a bunch of playoff games. I was at Game 7 [in 2019] when the Bruins lost to Blues (by a 4-1 score). But I have great memories from the Bruins-Canucks series when we won the Cup.”

But it’s photography that continues to be her focus outside of family life.

“I’ve been lucky enough with my client base and everything else, that I’ve been able to work in photography full time,” said Jenn. “I can just pursue photography, and I feel very blessed to be able to do that.”

And her clients and Revere High School students are very blessed to have a consummate professional on the job. Jenn Cimino is doing what she loves to do and doing it exceptionally well.