A third culture kid, Barbara Coello has lived in several continents since her early childhood. For her, photography has been a medium to honor people, places, and moments throughout her life and a means to remember the past.
Her nomadic way of life strengthens her capacity for observation and adaptation, allowing her to move frequently between different geographical, social and cultural spheres. Studying and traveling across the globe allowed her to witness the impact of globalization on social, economic and geographic inequalities. This inspired her to pursue her PhD in development economics at La Sorbonne in order to explore theoretically what she had experienced on the ground.
For Barbara, photography is a way to give visibility to people coping with the effects of international agricultural trade policies, food insecurity and gender inequalities. Her work reflects a passion for social justice and, in particular, women’s issues given her feminist sensitivity. She is particularly interested in women in rural areas whose strength, difficulties and paths should be highlight to the rest of the society; instead of glorifying objectified women. She documents women’s successes and challenges and transforms them into pieces of evidence -through research- to create change through public policies.
Her photography allows her to remain curious about others and wander spontaneously across the globe. She uses her research to build a new style of visual storytelling merging quantitative and visuals methods. Her multimedia piece, "The DC Balade" -The DC Wander-, was showcased at the Pioneer Works for the Red Hook Crit Slideluck Bikeshow. She was also featured in the International Awards Competition at Foto DC and exhibit at the National Geographic as well as some other places in DC. Her work has been showcased in several reports, presentations and blogs for the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. She was also published in El Pais.
Finally she has been part of Nomad Tracks, a collective of international artists, whose members are citizens engaged in different artistic expressions. In 2016 she was part of an art residence of Nomad-Tracks collective in Cuba and participated to a collective exhibit at the Museum of Bardo- Alger. In 2017 and 2018 she participated in two art residences that were hold in the Medina of Dakar. Nomad Tracks has been selected in the Off of the Biennale an international festival of contemporary African Art in the Biennale festival in Dakar in May 2018. She will be exhibiting as an artist and part of the production team for a two weeks residency with a several dozen of artist from all countries taking over the Medina of Dakar to transform it in sort of African Wynwood.