This feature is part of CULTURED’s 2026 Young Photographers List. This year’s list spotlights 14 artists aged 30 or younger from around the globe who are united by a relentless curiosity and an understanding that the photographer’s most important job is identifying what deserves to be seen.
AGE: 28
BASED IN: New York
The Brooklyn-based image-maker is one of 17 emerging artists featured in “Fade,” the latest in a storied exhibition series at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Osorio, whose practice is rooted in the archives of her Afro-Latino family, queer becoming, and the natural world, spent the summer photographing trees at two elite residencies, Ox-Bow and Wassaic Project.
What’s the ideal situation for you to make work?
I am a night owl. I can be in the studio all day, but it’s not until after sunset that I can actually get into a groove of making. I’m trying to quit smoking, but a Marlboro Gold and a cold brew always help.
What questions does your work ask?
Basically, my entire thing with faceless portraits is that I feel like there’s a missing space in representational photography of queer folks. It’s focused too much on gender expression and who looks “queer.” I wanted to question the way I approach portraits by chasing this feeling or creating a tension between my desire for my subject and their desire for me without meeting a gaze. It’s less about who gets seen and more about what is felt.
What fears does your work address?
My work explores this heightened sense of rejection that queer people feel. Rejection from our families, from the world in the way we present ourselves, and even sometimes from other queer people.
What’s the craziest situation you’ve shot in?
During a residency on Fire Island two years ago, I photographed everything: play parties, landscapes, portraits of my friends. Anyone who’s been to Fire Island knows it’s like the story of the Lotus Eaters from the Odyssey. To be honest, it was probably going to be some of my best work. Unfortunately, when I got home after the residency ended, I realized the film camera I was using had a broken mirror, and all 33 rolls came out blank. The struggles of being a film photographer… I’d never shoot digital, though.
Meet more of CULTURED’s 2026 Young Photographers:
Rahim Rabia’s Advice to Other Photographers? Doubt Yourself More.
Many Photographers Have Been Nominated for a Pulitzer. This One Was Nominated for a Grammy.
YunPing Li, Who Pushes Self-Portraiture to the Limit, Once Recreated an Image of His Own Birth
War Still Rages in Ukraine. Photographer Conall Kearney Is There to Document It.
Photographer Elijah Chukwuka Mogoli Captures a Disappearing Brooklyn
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