Karen Toro

About me

Quito, 1990.
My work in the artistic and photographic field is related to issues of human rights, migration, education and gender.

My work is based on the belief in the social importance of photography as a way to relate, make visible and support the work of historically vulnerable movements, so my work aims to build a dignified, empathetic and respectful look towards various groups such as peasants, indigenous people, women, educators, people in human mobility, environmental groups, LGBTIQ+, defenders of territories, and others.

Jorge Mantilla Ortega Award in the Photojournalism category (2020). Member of Women Photograph, Fluxus Foto collective and Ecuadorian Photographers Association.

Production grant from the National Geographic Society 2020 Emergency Fund for Journalists (Fluxus Foto). Selected artist for the MUFF/Caminos Conjuntos 2020-2021 program of the Centro de Fotografía de Montevideo (Uruguay) and finalist of the IV Edition of the Brazil Emerging Art Award 2019.

As a photographer she has worked for NGOs such as Plan International and the Scalabrinian Mission of Ecuador, she has published her work in local and international media such as: Human Rights Watch, Spotlight Initiative, Amapola Periodismo (mx), Pie de página (mx), Interferencia (cl), Zero Grados (esp), LATFEM (arg), La Vaca (arg), El Salto (esp), Amerika21 (ale), Lateinamerika Nachrichten (ale), Mundo Diners, El Comercio, GK, Vistazo, La Tecla-R, Radio Cocoa, La Periódica, La Andariega.

Coordinator of parallel activities and workshop leader at the V Ethnographic Film Festival of Ecuador. She has been a guest lecturer at the Luz de Ventana Festival (Chile, 2020), Gris Medio Festival (USFQ, 2020), Documentary Photography as a tool in social processes in the framework of the World Press Photo Exhibition (Guayaquil, 2019), Dialogue in Rooms: Dali from a gender perspective (Metropolitan Cultural Center, 2019).