Cale Garrido

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Say hi: mail(a)calegarrido.es

Cale Garrido (she/her)

is a Spanish in(ter)dependent curator, author, and photo editor focusing on contemporary photography and other lens-based media. Her work spans exhibitions, publications, and film programs, with an emphasis on social and ecological issues. She is currently curator at the 9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg, opening in 2026, under the artistic direction of Mark Sealy and program direction of Bettina Freimann. She is also a guest lecturer at the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Berlin.

In 2025, she was guest curator of the exhibition A World in Common. Contemporary African Photography for the C/O Berlin Foundation, building on the original curatorial concept by Osei Bonsu for Tate Modern. She previously contributed to the curatorial teams of the RAW Photo Triennale Worpswede in 2023 and the 8th Triennial of Photography Hamburg in 2022.

After her Journalism studies, Cale self-published two photobooks with documentary photographer Philipp Meuser: Kadosh (2015) and Neorrurales (2018), focussing on the politics of housing and demographics in different contexts. From 2016, she worked as a photo editor for Greenpeace-related publications in Germany. This experience has fostered an abiding interest in environmentally engaging projects and brought her to curate group shows like Urgent Arts of Living (Kaunas Photography Gallery, 2019), What if Earth Becomes Uninhabitable (co-curator Peter Lindhorst, PHmuseum, 2020) and NEXT (co-curator Daria Bona, Barkenhoff at RAW Photo Triennale Worpswede, 2023).
As a member of the artists’ and photographers’ collective APPARAT, founded in Berlin in 2017, she curated the exhibition Die Anderen sind Wir. Bilder einer dissonanten Gesellschaft (Brandenburgischen Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst in Cottbus, 2019). She regularly collaborates with Kaunas Photography Gallery in Lithuania and has edited two of their latest publications: Joan Fontcuberta: Crisis of History (co-curator Alison Nordström, 2020) and Women's Workshop (2023).

Other activities & contributions

Curator at Hamburg Shortfilm Festival, 3 - 8 June, 2025
Laboratory of the Present: Togetherness
She* is a House. With films by Carme Gomila, Marwa Arsanios, Deirdre O'Mahony
and Stéphanie Lagarde

Guest curator at C/O Berlin Foundatio A World in Common. Contemporary African Photographywith Osei Bonsu, curator of international art at Tate Modern
February 1 – May 8, 2025

International Curator Residency Award, Returning Curator, April/May 2025,
Fire Station Artists' Studios, Dublin

Artist talk with Daniel Chatard
Depot Dortmund, October 2024

Guest lecturer at Hanover University's study program Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography, 2023–2025

Roundtable Climate no Future? Zukunftsbilder und politisches Handeln in der Klimakrise,
in conversation with Christine Hentschel, Raúl Semmler (actor and activist, Letzte Generation), Annika Rittman (activist, Fridays for Future) and Felix Anderl, moderated by Ursula Schröder Universität Hamburg, October 2024

Moderation FILMFEST HAMBURG, 2024
Reproduktion, in conversation with the director Katharina Pethke, DoP Christoph Rohrscheidt and producer Julia Cöllen (Hamburg Premiere)
Freiheit im Herzen. Lass es uns eilig haben, menschlich zu sein, in conversation with the director Roxana Samadi, Shilan Kurdpoor and Caroline Schreiber

Jury member VGH Fotopreis, 2023 & 2024

Curator at Hamburg Shortfilm Festival, 4 - 9 June, 2024
Laboratory of the Present: On Solidarity
1. Solidarity as common ground. With films by Joyce Wieland, Daniel Cortés Ramírez, Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil & Jackson Polys, Narges Kalhor and Estíbaliz Urresola Solaguren
2. Freedom dreaming. With films by Tourmaline, Carole Roussopoulos, Barbara Hammer,
Simon*e Jaikiriuma Paetau and Agustina Comed

International Curator Residency Award, April/May 2024,
Fire Station Artists' Studios, Dublin

Head of program: Symposium Jagen & Sammeln on December 9, 2023
From Matter to Image. Photography from an ecological perspective
with Boaz Levin (Author and Curator C/O Berlin), Mathieu Asselin (Photographer) and Dr. Prof. Regine Hengge (Microbiologist). In collaboration with Freundeskreis des Hauses der Photographie at Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Watch the symposium online.

Text contribution to Trigger #5: Energy, 2023

Transformative power. Creative Responses in Times of Transition
Editorial board of FUTURES edition: Julia Gelezova & Ángel Luis González Fernández (PhotoIreland), Emese Mucsi (Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center), Daria Tuminas (FOTODOK), and Tom Viaene (FOMU).

Moderation FILMFEST HAMBURG, 2023
Endless Borders, directed by Abbas Amini, Q&A with film producer Farzad Pak and composer Atena Eshtiaghi (German premiere)
Life is Not a Competition, But I'm Winning, directed by Julia Fuhr Mann
Und dass man ohne Täuschung zu leben vermag, Q&A with film director Katharina Lüdin (German premiere)

Roundtable Renewable photography?! A roundtable discussion on sustainability and ecology in photography in conversation with Carolin Lange & Dico Kruijsse, Nicolas Reinhart, and Christoph Wieland. Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie & Kalamari Klub at the Bundesgartenschau (BUGA 23), June 2023

Internationale Photoszene Köln: Convention We Do / Are Photography, October 2022
On the ecological question in the exhibition space in conversation with Moritz Ohlig (Museum Sinclair-Haus, Stiftung Kunst und Natur), moderated by Nada Schroer

Finissage Archive of Experiences by Kelvin Haizel, October 2022
Gallery Talk with Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh (KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana)
and Gabriel Schimmeroth (MARKK)

International guest at PhotoIreland 2022, July 2022

Moderation The Remains of Photography, June 2022
Esther Ruelfs and Vartan Avakian in conversation, 8th Triennial of Photography Hamburg

Jury member New Irish Works 2022-2025, February 2022

EMOP, Portfolio Reviews at f3 Freiraum für Fotografie, October 2020

FUTURES Digital Festival: The Conversations, October 2020

Podcast in conversation with Alexander Hagmann (German)
dieMotive – Zur Kultur der Fotografie Part 1 // Part 2

Interview with photographer Andrea Künzig FREELENS, 2019
Bilder für ein tiefes Verständnis (German)

Artist Talk with photographer Rebecca Sampson about her work Apples for Sale, Fotodoks Festival , Munich, 2019

(...)

Impressum

On view / Online

Digital publication Paradox County with Philipp Meuser & Kolja Warnecke, with an essay by Celina Lunsford

Website Urgent Arts of Living,
part of the Parallel Online program with Mirjam Kooiman, art historian and curator at Foam Photography Museum Amsterdam