ABOUT

María Elena Valdés (she/her) is a Mexican photographer, artist, and creative director based in New York City.

With a focus on documentary works, Valdés can deeply connect with her subjects and their universes, capturing a raw, yet quirky reality full of empathy and curiosity. Known for her editorial publications such as Muxelandia (2018), Ruth (2017), and Diario Pandemia (2020), Valdés effectively tells the story of the human experience through different contexts and cultures.

Her creative documentary work is balanced out by a portfolio of commercial clients for whom she advises, develops, and executes visual concepts. She builds custom teams to produce aesthetic content that will allow her to communicate each brand’s language in an engaging and unique way. Her core is rooted in storytelling.

María Elena’s work has been showcased at exhibitions in New York, Mexico City, Miami, Austin TX, Japan, and Thailand. She also has publications on editorial platforms that include, Nowness, The New York Times, Garage Magazine, VICE, L'Uomo Vogue, Vogue Latin America, Harpers Bazaar US, and Cultura Colectiva among others.

Please feel free to reach out for any project proposal, or collaboration. Or if you have questions about the work in general.