Carolina Cabanillas

Photograhy. Design. Art Direction.

Truth — and its power to make us better people — has been at the center of Carolina’s creative life for two decades. She has worked in earnest to fine-tune her ability to show someone’s essence with candid objectivity, a process by which each subject is given equal opportunity to be seen for who they are. While she likes to humanize those who are privileged, she strives to elevate those who aren’t. Making a good and honest photograph is how Carolina contributes to giving a voice to their story.

To achieve this result, Carolina standardized her technical process so that the photographic equipment isn’t an obstacle to the story telling; instead, it facilitates the process and enables her to connect with the subject and their environment in a more humane way. She makes a point to immerse herself in someone else’s life, into a group’s dynamic, and amongst a society’s social and political makeup. She has always been fundamentally interested in other people and that is what makes her an effective storyteller.

Carolina’s professional trajectory was never a straight line. She spent fifteen years working as a graphic designer and creative thinker for international nonprofit organizations and on political campaigns, before making a leap into photography. She now marries her instinctive inspiration with her two favorite mediums — photography and design — to tell stories about people.