Estela de Castro. Photographer and educator specialized in portrait photography. Part of her personal work is strongly linked to the fight for human rights and animal rights.
She began studying photography at the Look School in Madrid at the age of 15. Later, she worked as a photographer's assistant for one year at Ciclorama Studios (Madrid). In her development as an author, she specialized through workshops and courses with some of Spain's most prominent photographers, such as Javier Vallhonrat, Óscar Molina, Eduardo Momeñe, Valentín Vallhonrat, Manuel Outumuro, and Sofía Moro.
In 2011, she began her personal project Fotógrafos, in which she photographed the great masters of Spanish photography, a project that earned her one of the scholarships from the Albarracín Photography and Journalism Seminar in 2012. This work was exhibited in the official section of PhotoEspaña 2014 (Tabacalera Hall, Madrid), with production funded by the Ministry of Culture, and later at the CAF, Centro Andaluz de la Fotografía (Almería), the Revela-t Festival (Barcelona), the Granada Eclipsa Festival, the Art Photo BCN Festival (Barcelona), the Pallantiaphoto Festival (Palencia), and the Spectrum Gallery (Zaragoza).
Between 2017 and 2019, she developed her project Zoocosis, in which she photographed and denounced the confinement of animals in zoos. Through this project, she participated in Capital Animal, directed by Rafael Doctor, exhibited at Casa Encendida (Madrid), Centre del Carmen (Valencia), Las Cigarreras (Alicante), the Revela-t Festival (Barcelona), Est_Art (Madrid) during the Córdoba Biennale, the Banco de España in Tarragona, and the FotoArica Festival (Chile).
In 2017, she created and directed PHES Fotografía Española Solidaria, a socially oriented project that aims to address the migrant crisis through photography and various actions.
The project raised sufficient funds to support both assistance to people fleeing their countries and aid to animals trapped in the Syrian conflict. PHES has already organized two editions of exhibitions and auctions held at the Centro Universitario de Artes TAI in Madrid.
Building on her experience with PHES, in 2018 she launched 33.293, a project that gives voice to over 100 displaced people from 17 different nationalities using photography as a tool. 33.293 was exhibited at the Revela-t Festival (Barcelona), Foto Úbeda Biennale (Jaén), CAF (Almería), Lens School of Visual Arts (Madrid), and Banco Editorial (Coruña).
Since 2014, she has also had an extensive career as an educator, being part of the teaching staff at the Efti School of Photography, the Lens School of Visual Arts, and the Centro Universitario de Artes TAI in Madrid. Additionally, she has been giving numerous portrait workshops nationwide for years and regularly participates in national photography festivals as a speaker.
In 2019, she was commissioned to create the Official Portraits of Their Majesties the King and Queen, the Princess of Asturias, and Infanta Sofía.
In 2020, she participated with 42 photographers in the project Tiempo Detenido, initiated by Eduardo Nave, with her project Resilience, co-published by La Fábrica and Fundación ENAIRE.
In 2020, she created her project The Animals, which aims to raise awareness about animal abuse. She photographs animals rescued from situations of abandonment, hunting, circuses, zoos, laboratories, accidents, breeding farms, or illegal trafficking.
In 2021, the documentary series Detrás del Instante, broadcast on TVE2, dedicated an episode to her career as a photographer.
In 2021, she received the second prize from Fundación ENAIRE, and her book Zoocosis, published by Banco Editorial, was selected by PhotoEspaña.
In 2022, her project The Animals, portraying rescued animals from various types of exploitation, was exhibited at PhotoEspaña and published as a book by La Fábrica.
In 2023, the Ministry of Culture awarded her first prize for Best Art Book of the Year for her book The Animals, published by La Fábrica. She participated in the official section of PhotoEspaña in the collective exhibition Una Visión Propia at the Museo Lázaro Galdiano. She received first prize in the “Amigos de los Animales” competition by the Ministry of Social Affairs and was a finalist in the Pilar Citoler Award.
In 2024, she exhibited her project Family Portraits, in which she photographs multi-species families, at La Térmica in Málaga, alongside publishing a photobook of this work. She also exhibited this project at the DKV Photography Center in Zaragoza, at the Fotocanimar Festival in Cuba, at the Official Residence of the People of Mexico, and at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Madrid. She received second prize in the Animal Rights and Anti-Violence competition organized by Movimiento Consciencia in Mexico. She exhibited her projects Persona and Zoocosis at the FotoArica Festival in Chile, and her project 52.760 at the Ver-Voir Festival in Peru.
As a freelance photographer, she has collaborated for years with magazines such as Esquire, Forbes, and Tapas in editorial portraiture, as well as creating several book covers for the Planeta Group. Her work has been published in national and international magazines including El País Semanal, El Mundo, La Vanguardia, Babelia, Vanidad, FV, Getafe Capital, La Triuna, Universia, Global, Lecturas, Hola, ABC, La Razón, New Paper, Revista Carrete, Hablar en Arte, Revista Gráfica, and The Times.
Her works are part of the collections of the Ministry of Culture, the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), Fundación ENAIRE, Patrimonio Nacional, the Assembly of Madrid, COEM, Foto Colectania, and various private collections.
