Wall art by Esteban Tapella

from San Juan, Argentina

Find out more about Esteban Tapella

I studied social sciences and human ecology, and I work at the Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Argentina. I am a freelance consultant in the field of rural and sustainable development. I have extensive field experience in working with local communities, NGOs and local scale development projects. My photographic work is driven by my restless desire and curiosity about the world and its people. I mainly concentrate on long-term in-depth projects to create frameworks to reflect on the social, cultural and environmental consequences of our globalised society. Throughout my essays I attempt to generate dialogue and collaboration between subjects and audiences, bringing different world views into confrontation with each other. As a documentary photographer, I like to take pictures that could tell powerful stories and advocate for social change. During last ten years I’ve been doing photography essays on topics like rural livelihoods, land tenure, indigenous knowledge and identity. I usually work to serve NGOs and local organizations that want to drive social change by telling their stories through high quality pictures. Most of my images are grounded in people from developing countries. I try to highlight their livelihoods and stories of human experience. I hope that my images can inspire and touch others, bringing indigenous and rural poor people a tiny step closer to us. My dream is to contribute to different organizations to make others to care about people's life and culture by revealing the core about their humanness.