Nicolás Bernal (2000) is an Indigenous Pasto photographer, political scientist, and visual artist, cuir/queer, born and based in Ipiales, Colombia. His practice brings together artistic and documentary photography to examine colonial legacies, subaltern memories, futurist Andean Indigenous cosmologies, the persistence of marginalised bodies in relation to techno-biopower, and sexual and gender diversity in Abya Yala.
His photographic practice is grounded in visual anthropology, informing a commitment to long-term, collaborative, and co-authored processes. Particularly, he uses self-portraiture to challenge, subvert, and decolonize hegemonic visual narratives in the photographic industry regarding the underrepresented communities to which he belongs.
He was selected for the international open call of Exposure Photography Festival 2026 to exhibit at Contemporary Calgary, Canada, and for XPO Joven OFF at the 14th edition of PhotoArt Festival in Torrelavega, Spain. He has also exhibited at museums and festivals such as Melkweg (Amsterdam, 2025), Pride Photo 2024 (Netherlands), Africa Foto Fair 2023 (Ivory Coast), and Trastevere Museum (Rome, 2022). In 2025 he was recognized with an honorable mention in the New Talent category of POY Latam.
