Nacho Varela
Spain | B. 1985
Nacho Varela is a Spanish photographer based in Madrid. He began practicing street photography in 2017 on the streets of his hometown, and since then he has taken it all over the world. Without a doubt, photography has become his passion and vocation —something that has changed his life.
His work focuses on capturing human existence in a cinematic way. Immersing himself in the chaos of the street, he seeks beauty in everyday life.
He pays special attention to color, although he sometimes prefers to work in black and white. His style is “frank,” meaning spontaneous. He does not ask for permission to shoot. Therefore, his work represents a humanistic, respectful, and down-to-earth kind of photography.
Since 2022, he has been conducting urban photography workshops in different cities alongside his partner, also a photographer, Gaby Chinea, through their project Todos a la Calle (Everyone to the Street).
CREDENTIALS
2025
White Balance Awards with group exhibition at Est_Art Space. Selected with the
project “Of Other Lives”
Internet Day Awards. Spanish Internet Users Association. First Prize in Content
Creators Category
Portfolio Contest, OnPhoto Soria Photography Festival. Third Prize
2024
VIEPA Awards: Honorable Mention
Fujifilm #WorldPhotographyDay24: Second Prize
Taboracrom. Talavera Photography Contest: First Prize
2023
#Streetstyle PhotoEspaña Contest. First Prize
#elmomentodelopequeño PhotoEspaña Contest. Second Prize
Casanova Foto Contest. Street Category: Second Prize
2022
Aula de Especialización Fotográfica. 2nd International Pastiche Contest: First Prize
#Streetstyle PhotoEspaña Contest. First Prize
Streetgrammer Photo of the Year
ND Awards. Street Photography Category: Honorable Mention
Fujifilm Calendar. Fujifilm Spain and Portugal.
2021
Madrid Film Office. #Mimadriddecine. Third Prize: ‘Plaza de la Armería’
Madrid Film Office. #Mimadriddecine. Second Prize: ‘Un día en las carreras’
Fujifilm Calendar. Fujifilm Spain and Portugal.
2020
AFSA Ciutat de Xàtiva. Fourth Prize
Fujifilm Calendar. Fujifilm Spain and Portugal.
2019
Fujifilm Calendar. Fujifilm Spain and Portugal.
Other People’s Lives. Tipos Infames Bookstore. Madrid, Spain
In Colors Project ED#3 JOY, Lumicroma, Portugal
White Balance. Est Art Space. Madrid, Spain
Other People’s Lives. Le Magazine (June)
2024
Other People’s Lives. Caption Magazine (July)
2023
Nacho’s Camera. Risbel Magazine (Spring–Summer)
2022
Pastiche Contest. El Periódico de Catalunya (September)
Exposições Lumicroma
IN COLORS PROJECT ED#1 REACT!
The broadness to which ... Ler Mais
The broadness to which the theme is open is represented in this set of 50 artworks by photographers from 22 nationalities. React! to what, from what perspective? The possibility of endless interpretations is mirrored in an exhibition in which the reaction is as much in the photographed "scene" itself as in the impression of the person who photographed it, and also, and always, in the eye of the person who appreciates the photograph. In this realm, there is the image of time and place, of many places and many qualities of time. There is the beauty of moments, spaces, cultures and traditions. There is a whole scale of emotions. There is the poetry of landscapes and the destruction wrought by war. There is fantasy in improbable scenarios. There are global concerns, personal instances. Sometimes the weight of existence; sometimes the lightness of laughter in the face of death. There remains, still, the certainty of a kaleidoscopic world, in permanent change, so that stories repeat themselves. Because man repeats himself. The continuity of life is also maintained. It is in the faces of many. It is in the colors. It is in the light of black and white. It is in the instinct. In the will. In what is lost, in what is conquered.
Curated by Sandra Maria Teixeira
IN COLORS PROJECT – a borderless initiative by Lumicroma – reclaims the relevance of photography as a sociocultural record and artistic intervention. Through the convergence of experiences reflecting on the current world and through photographic creation, it aims to annually trace the grand image of the time in which we live. Ler Menos
IN COLORS PROJECT ED#2 HOME
In 74 photographs, 32 authors from 14 nationalities give us the most poignant portrait of what we are, what we do and what we are failing at. Because HOME has smiles and exposed wounds. It shows a sense of belonging and an absurd lack of ground.
It is the human cloak of a thousand patches to which we all belong.
This is our Home. And we can't close our eyes.
Curated by Sandra Maria Teixeira
IN COLORS PROJECT – a borderless initiative by Lumicroma – reclaims the relevance of photography as a sociocultural record and artistic intervention. Through the convergence of experiences reflecting on the current world and through photographic creation, it aims to annually trace the grand image of the time in which we live. Ler Menos
AUSCHWITZ: TRACE(S) OF A LEGACY
To keep the memory alive appeals to reflection and to vigilanc ... Ler Mais
To keep the memory alive appeals to reflection and to vigilance and encourages the commitment of future generations, so that, through these, the voices of the survivors, which will soon no longer be heard, can echoe.
We know the history, we have seen the films and we have read the books. We have always been told that Auschwitz is the true symbol of Holocaust, since more than one million jews were murdered there. A factory of killing people! Gypsies, ho-mossexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and political dissidents also suffered in this dark place.
We have read about the hideous experiments carried out by Mengele in Auschwitz. We have seen photographies of the survivors, of the corpses, of the crematoriums, of the abandoned personal belongings. We started our journey to Poland with the thought that we would be prepared to face the interpretative centre of the Holocaust and, through it, find the answer to our restlessness: how could this have been humanly possible?
During the journey, we revisited those with whom we had previously shared the feeling of the concentration camp. All the pages, testimonies and faces remained well alive in our memories.
We have arrived, the presence in Auschwitz overwhelms us!
No memory, read, studied, seen or heard can be compared to standing right there. In the deafening silence of that place, which carries within itself the imense loss of human sense, the question of Theodor Adorno gains strenght: How can poetry be possible after Auschwitz Ler Menos
COURA'S PARADISE
Alfredo Cunha's eye, attentive and sharp, documents this magic, this spirit of brotherhood, this collective happiness. The joy of the audience and the euphoria of the bands, who never forget th ... Ler Mais
Alfredo Cunha's eye, attentive and sharp, documents this magic, this spirit of brotherhood, this collective happiness. The joy of the audience and the euphoria of the bands, who never forget that breathtaking human wall and the generous way they are received. It captures the sweetness, the serenity, the deepest peace, the shared love, the respect, the amazement, the unique energy of the Taboão river, contrasted with the exaltation, the apotheosis, the celebration and the joy, that sacred emotion that Almada Negreiros once said was "the most serious thing in life".
Year after year, we need the Paredes de Coura Festival to recharge the batteries of passion, to dispel the mediocrity of the grayest days, to cure the diseases of the sadness that makes us pale and to chase away the city carrion that burrows into our bones. To fill ourselves with beauty, euphoria and the deepest peace, in divine communion with nature. On pilgrimage, in a perpetual return to magic.
Curated by Sandra Maria Teixeira
IN COLORS PROJECT ED#3 JOY
Photography, as a device for representation and mediation, emerges as a territory for ideological, aesthetic, and poetic experimentation. The selected images map out visual strate- gies through which different cultures are encoded, ritualized, and transmitted. Encompassing a range of representational expressions – from collective celebration to intimate contemplation – each author presents a singular visual lexicon, revealing joy as a socio-anthropological and aesthetic praxis, while envisioning the creation of possible futures.
The curatorial approach is structured around the hypothesis that the photographic image constitutes a device for reconfiguring sensibility, for analyzing and interpreting reality, transfigured and appropriated into autonomous and individual realities, prompting us to question the conditions of possibility for pleasure, encounter, and transformation in contemporary societies.
Curated by Aníbal Lemos and Sandra Maria Teixeira
IN COLORS PROJECT – a borderless initiative by Lumicroma – reclaims the relevance of photography as a sociocultural record and artistic intervention. Through the convergence of experiences reflecting on the current world and through photographic creation, it aims to annually trace the grand image of the time in which we live. Ler Menos