José Antonio Castro Mella (Pepe Castro) (Madrid, October 25, 1963) is a contemporary Spanish artist-photographer specialized in portraiture, recognized above all by an extensive work of black and white portraits of relevant people from Spanish culture and society.
As a teacher, he gives different workshops, master classes and motivational talks for photographers, creators and visual artists and has been a regular speaker for years at the most important photographic events and congresses in Spain and Latin America.
Other photography projects:
The Peace Shooter: or The Peace Photographer is a photographic and documentary project in search of photographs and testimonies of peace messengers around the world.
The men and women awarded the Nobel Peace Prize are the main protagonists of this document, but by no means the only ones.
The photographer of peace in some media The photographer of Peace.
Faces of Democracy: Photographic and documentary project about meetings with presidents and former presidents of different countries, always democratically elected, to talk with them about their experience in office and its repercussion in the field of democracy.
Each encounter ends with a photo shoot to get a black and white portrait of the protagonist.
Director and presenter of "Los ReBelados" a program by Uppers, Mediaset where he interviews different characters from the world of culture, cinema, sports, etc... finishing the interview in a photo shoot.
Director and host of the Podcast: "Ciudadano Quién" Interviews and great stories about photography, art, current affairs and solidarity.
History
His maternal grandfather, Eloy Mella, was a cinematographer in Spanish cinema in the 50s and 60s and participated in such relevant films as Bienvenido, Mister Marshall or Un vampiro para dos.
he is a member of the Royal Academy of Córdoba, and of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Historical Sciences of Toledo. COO of the digital photography magazine DNG Photo Magazine.
he began working professionally as a photographer in 2003, after leaving another business activity, to dedicate himself fully to photography. Since then, he has accumulated an extensive career and recognitions, </ p>
Official ambassador of the prestigious Hasselblad brand from 2016 to 2018, one of the few ambassadors that the Swedish brand has in the world and the first Spanish photographer to achieve this merit.</p >
In 2017 the Japanese company Olympus included him among its "Visionaries" ambassadors in Spain.
The personal and marked style both in the management of the session and in the post-production of his black and white images have undoubtedly made him one of the reference photographers in Spain, Showing in his work close portraits, without distractions and sometimes hard, that go deep and discover the personality of each one of the sitters who pose in front of their lens.
In March 2017 he was the first Spanish photographer to give a lecture on his working method at the prestigious B&H photography center in New York, breaking audience records in live, (9,500 people online during the event)
His blog, with a multitude of portraits of well-known faces, especially from Spanish society and culture, is characterized by having a brief text next to each photograph in which he briefly describes and colloquial the encounter with each of these characters and how they arrive at the final result, making the visit more appealing to both photographers and the curious.
(In March 2017 he was the first photographer to give a lecture in Spanish on working method at the prestigious B&H New York photography center, breaking audience records live with more than 9,500 people in line during the event)
Outside of Spain he has given conferences, workshops and talks in New York, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Costa Rica, Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, Guatemala, Panama etc. </ p>
In December 2019, he began collaborating with the Mediaset Uppers platform with the series "Rebelados", an innovative program format where in each episode he interviews a famous person whom at In the end, he ends up submitting to a photographic session.
Merits and work:
- Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Fine Letters and Noble Arts of Córdoba
- Member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Historical Sciences by Toledo RABACHT
- Member of the Worldwide Peace Organization
- COO of the digital photography magazine "DNG Photo Magazine "
- Visionary, Olympus Brand Ambassador
- Culture is Peace Foundation, President and founder
Cadena Cope CLM 2015 Award for professional career - Freelance photographer publications, ABC, El Mundo, Esquire, Influencers
- “Portraits of La Movida” Sala Madrid me Mata ( Portraits of the most relevant characters of the Madrid scene)
- Permanent exhibition at the Museum of Humor (Casasimarro) Portraits of great comedians.
- “Portraits for film and theater” (several rooms)
- “Do not be an accomplice” traveling, with the Institute of the Castile-La Mancha woman
- “Animal Portraits” (various rooms)</li >
- Author portrait exhibition (San José, Costa Rica ) (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
- Exhibition on Medieval Spain (joint) San José de Costa Rica
- Web Nobel Pax Portraits undefined each episode interviews a celebrity who ends up subjecting them to a photo shoot.
(Source Wikipedia)
English (United Kingdom)