Oscar Castillo

59:14 “Photography and Social Justice: Sharing Works in Progress” presented with The Magnum Foundation PHOTOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: SHARING WORKS IN PROGRESS presented with The Magnum Foundation Featuring Aishwarya Arumbakkam, Asef Mohammad, Farzana Hossen, Gabriella Báez Reyes, Jon Santiago, Nolan Ryan Trowe, Oscar Castillo, Shaima Al-Tamimi, Uma Bista, and moderated by Mengwen Cao Photoville 2020 Talks On-demand recordings are made possible in partnership with PhotoWIngs with additional support by the Philip and Edith Leonian Foundation “How do we, as photographers, open our lives for exploration and journey towards our inner selves in our most difficult moments as we so often ask of others? And how do we do it with the intention of making things better? Many questions and difficult answers. Social justice is not only a utopian goal of equality, it is also how we embrace the process and how we approach our stories. I hope to be getting closer and closer with care, respect, solidarity, understanding, mutual support, honesty, and compassion.” –Oscar Castillo We’re sharing some inside looks into the processes and experiences of our 2020 Photography and Social Justice Fellows as their projects near completion. From the persistent undercurrents of trauma in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane María, to the challenges facing formerly incarcerated youth upon re-entry in Venezuela, and from personal explorations of masculinity, family, and identity, and how they intersect with disability, to challenging harmful practices and stigmas around menstruation in Nepal, this diverse, international group of visual storytellers is exploring new approaches to socially engaged documentary practice. photoville.nyc/online/photography-and-social-justice-sharing-works-in-progress/ PhotoWings 20:06 THE NEW NEW YORKERS | Oscar Castillo | Photoville Education Field Trip Oscar B. Castillo is a Venezuelan documentary photographer and multimedia artist whose work focuses on social subjects that explore ideas of identity, the cycles of violence and political rupture and the initiatives for improvement generated by the affected communities, at the time that questions the structures of power and the photographic industry and the role we and our images can play in a deeper, more complex and more effective dialogue. He has followed and developed personal projects, fellowships and assignments in many different parts of the world and have been exhibited widely. His work has been published by Le Monde, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Days Japan, The New Yorker, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and TIME Magazine. His work was recognized by Picture of the Year Latin America in 2015 and with an Eugene Smith Fellowship in 2016. He is the recipient of three Magnum Foundation grants and was awarded the Tim Hetherington Special Award at the Eddie Adams Workshop. His Photobook “Esos Que Saben” is a finalist for the Aperture / Paris Photo Book Award and was selected by TIME Magazine in the Top 20 Photobooks of 2022. Parallel to his photographic work he has developed a passion for teaching, being photography as well an important tool for education, inclusion and social improvement. As instructor and teacher he has taken part in participatory photographic workshops and formal educational programs in Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, India and Venezuela amongst other places. "Yenis crossed jungles, deserts, chaotic cities and lonely towns. Slept on the open air among mud and the endless selvatic rains. Walked kilometers under a relentless sun while holding in arms her loved Diana, a little girl that was already the oldest of Yenis’ treasures, the other treasure was growing in her womb, getting bigger with each step towards the north Yenis Andrade and Alexis Matos, a couple from Maracaibo in Venezuela, together with their family, are part of the big wave of recent migration to the USA. A big wave of big numbers, headlines, and statistics but that is really made of human lives, persons with face, dreams, determination, and their own story. And with that same determination, but almost without knowing it, they arrived to New York. The little treasure was now a big belly that Yenis and Alexis pampered and cared for while running between shelters for migrants, cold, bureaucracy to regularize their situation, jobs and the attention to little Diana and her endless energy. All that while seeing that belly turning one day, by surprise, into another beautiful baby girl with roots in Maracaibo and the indigenous Wayúu community, this time a baby born in New York." PhotoWings 16:31 Oscar Castillo: Venezuela & the Crescent Project - Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2017 PhotoWings 37:22 Panel: Making the Most of Foundry - Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2017 Foundry instructors and alumni Oscar Castillo, Kirsten Luce and Jared Moossy share how to best take advantage of your time at the Foundry Workshop. Moderated by Claire Rosen. From the 2017 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico City. PhotoWings 5:09 The Power of Photography - Foundry Photojournalism Workshop: Guatemala PhotoWings sat down with six of the esteemed instructors at the 2014 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop and asked them a simple question: What is it about photography that you find so powerful and important? They share heartfelt thoughts about their experiences and the work they have dedicated their lives to. Featuring: Ron Haviv, Photojournalist - www.ronhaviv.com Maggie Steber. Documentary Photographer - www.maggiesteber.com Andrea Bruce, Photojournalist - www.andreabruce.com Victor J. Blue, Photojournalist - www.victorblue.com Nacho Corbella, Visual Storyteller - www.nachocorbella.com Oscar Castillo, Photojournalist - www.eltestigo.net PhotoWings' mission is to highlight and help facilitate the power of photography to influence the world. We help photography to be better understood, created, utilized, seen, and saved. Compilation 3:51 Oscar B. Castillo: Documenting Life in Caracas, Venezuela Oscar B. Castillo is an award-winning photojournalist from Caracas, Venezuela who has worked around the world documenting a wide range of events and people, from the recent earthquake in Haiti, to struggles for independence in Indian controlled Kashmir. PhotoWings connected with Oscar during the 2014 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop where he was once a pupil and now is an instructor. He told us about the difficulties and rewards of bringing his photojournalism practice to his home of Caracas, where gang violence and corrupt politics plague the city and its people. Of this work Oscar says: "there's an ugly side [to Caracas], but let's try to make it better - let's try to improve it, let's try to make it more beautiful, let's try [so] that the people, the histories, don't fall away and fade." PhotoWings