My love for photography began in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where I was born and raised. Following three generations of photography,my grandfather gave me my first camera when I was 8 years old my fingers barely able to hold the camera in my hands. As I got older I studied the medium in both Puerto Rico and the United States, landing my first professional job at the largest newspaper in Puerto Rico, El Mundo. Later, I relocated to New York City to organize and curate my grandfather's photo archives while working as a freelance photojournalist and organizing exhibits of both my grandfathers and my work.
In the last decade and a half, my visual quest has been to seek out humanist photography, taking me around the world in search of inspiring, touching stories. Currently I am working on a long term project in what is considered to be, one of the last unexplored frontiers in the world: the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia, and its remarkable inhabitants , the Koguis, my photographs are made to honor and respect their great strength, spirituality, and deeply ingrained sense of tradition.
I am not interested in merely taking pretty pictures of communities in the midst of change. I am drawn to creating a long term, life's work that will stand as a document of time and the lives existing within that world.
Miguel de Casenave