Isadora Romero

Isadora Romero

“I took this photograph with my father’s first camera, which he called marranito (little pig), using an expired roll of film. The image shows part of his hometown, Une. When developed, it came out almost overexposed, like a fading memory. On top of the photo is a drawing made by my father, recalling his childhood in that place. This work speaks of memory: of what endures and what disappears,” Isadora Romero.

Isadora Romero is an independent Ecuadorian visual storyteller based in Quito. Her work lies at the intersection of documentary and artistic photography, focusing on themes of social justice, gender, and the environment—particularly the relationship between humans and agriculture, and the preservation of agrobiodiversity in Latin America. Her practice also explores the physical and digital materiality of the image and its discursive power.

She is a co-founder of Ruda, a collective of Latin American women photographers. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows in Ecuador and Luxembourg and in group exhibitions across several continents. She has participated in artistic residencies at the INAE Antarctic program, the San Agustín Arts Center in Mexico, and Neimenster in Luxembourg.

Her main recognitions include the 2025 After Nature Prize awarded by the Ulrike Crespo Foundation and C/O Berlin; the Discovery Award at Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France (2023); Ecuador’s National Photography Prize for Cultural Influence (2024); and the National Arts Prize Mariano Aguilera (2024–2025). She is also a winner of the global and regional Open Format Award from World Press Photo (2022), POY Latam Multimedia Category (2023), Second Place in Environment (2021), and the Marilyn Stafford Award (2021).

She was selected for the National Geographic Explorer Grant (2024–2025), the Prince Claus Fund Grant for Cultural and Artistic Responses to Environmental Change (2022), the Magnum Foundation’s Photography and Social Justice Fellowship (2021), and the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass (2020).

Romero is the author of the photobook Moving, to See You (2025) and co-author of Siete Punto Ocho. She has served as juror and nominator for institutions such as World Press Photo, the Prince Claus Fund, and Magnum Foundation. She is also an educator, mentor, lecturer, and a member of Women Photograph, Fotógrafos Ecuatorianos, Foto Féminas, and Diversify Photo.