Mackenzie Calle

Mackenzie Calle

An astronaut from the fictional Gay Space Agency. Staged photograph taken at Obsidian Dome in Mono County, California, United States.

In a review of the NASA and United States National archives, the photographer found no documentation on the contributions of the queer community to the space program. Instead she found only exclusion, including multiple heterosexuality tests for early NASA astronauts. The absence inspired her to imagine The Gay Space Agency, a diverse and inclusionary institution that commemorates and celebrates the history of queer astronauts who could not openly come out.

Mackenzie Calle is a freelance visual storyteller based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work often blurs the line between documentary and fiction to explore forgotten histories and queer experiences.

She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Cinema Studies and was awarded the Director’s Fellowship to attend ICP’s Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism Program. Calle was selected for the Eddie Adams Workshop class XXXV. 

Calle was selected as a Magnum Foundation Counter Histories Fellow in 2022. That same year, she was named one of the Lenscratch 25 to Watch and was shortlisted for the PhMuseum Women Photographers Grant. In 2023, she was named as a LensCulture Emerging Talent Award winner and received the Dear Dave Fellowship.  

Her work has been exhibited at Photoville, Pride Photo Festival, and Noorderlicht International Photo Festival.