Oscar B. Castillo

I'm a Venezuelan documentary photographer, multimedia artist, and educator focusing on stories about sociopolitical fractures, race and identity, the cycle of violence and the construction of criminal networks, and initiatives for pacification and inclusion mostly for the youth from underpriviledged cοmmunities. After studying psychology at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, I spent many years traveling mostly in Europe until photography took me back to formal educatiοn in Barcelona.

I have documented stories, independent personal projects, and assignments for major media on the complex political process and heavy crisis in Venezuela; have closely followed the situation of religions, exclusion, radicalization, and coexistence in France, the plans for pacification after decades of conflict in Colombia, and migration and the creation of a new Europe shaped by an increasing multicultural mix and facing again the rise of extreme ideologies, among other important global contemporary issues.

My work has been recognized by the Magnum Foundation and the Tim Hetherington Trust and has been awarded the Eugene Smith Fellowship, the Picture of the Year Latin America, the 6x6 Global Talent Program by the World Press Photo, among many other honorary mentions, and has been exhibited in Austria, Cambodia, Colombia, Cuba, Germany, Italy, among others.

As instructor and teacher I see documentary practice as a tool for dialogue and social improvement. With that vision I have taken part in participatory photographic workshops in Venezuelan prisons, for journalism students in post-earthquake Haiti, and with youth at risk in Mexico. I have also participated in formal educatiοnal programs in Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, India, Mexico, and Venezuela and in lectures in France, Norway, and the United States, among other places.

Oscar B. Castillo is a participant of the Onassis AiR Emergency Fellowships program 2020-21.