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JC ALTAMIRANO STUDIO · CDMX EST. 2017
Juan Carlos Altamirano in his Mexico City studio in Roma Norte.

Juan Carlos
Altamirano.

Editorial photographer — Mexico City. Studio in Roma Norte, working on assignment across four continents since 2017.

Working thesis

Image-making is a thesis, not a deliverable.

Every assignment begins with a single sentence the brand has not been able to say out loud yet. My job is to find that sentence — usually after a long walk, a brief conversation, and a look through a magazine I have been reading for twenty years — and then to make one picture that carries it.

I run JC Altamirano Studio from a 1,400-square-foot room in Roma Norte, with a permanent crew of four and a vetted freelance bench of twenty-two I have worked with on shoots from Lisbon to Long Island. There is no separate “creative” layer and no production agency in between. The person who answers the brief is the person who holds the camera, and the person who holds the camera is the person who grades every frame you receive.

I personally cull and grade every deliverable. There is no outsourced post-production. Average turnaround on a six-image campaign is five business days from wrap, and we have built a single-day editorial workflow that has cut repeat production costs by 41% for clients who rebook year over year.

The studio holds valid work authorization for shoots in Mexico, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Briefs arrive from creative directors, brand managers, and a small number of editors I have known long enough that they no longer need to brief me at all. Both kinds of conversation are equally welcome.

If that sounds like the way you want to make a campaign, read on.

What sets this studio apart

Four lines on a brief that change a procurement conversation.

  1. 01

    PDN 30

    Named one of PDN’s “30 New Photographers to Watch” in 2023, and a two-time winner of the International Photography Awards in the Editorial category. Cover credits include Vogue México, Wallpaper*, Kinfolk, and Apartamento.

  2. 02

    IPA · Editorial

    Featured by It’s Nice That, Hypebeast, and Juxtapoz as an emerging editorial voice, and a guest speaker at the FotoMéxico and Lagos Photo Festival masterclasses on single-day editorial production.

  3. 03

    22 Countries

    Three hundred and eighty-plus assignments across twenty-two countries and four continents since 2017, with an average client retention of 4.6 projects per brand over the first two years.

  4. 04

    In-House Unit

    A four-person production unit under the same roof: art direction, styling, and location are handled in-house, so a campaign is one call, one contract, one crew — not a relay.

By the numbers

The room, the reach, the machine.

87,000+
Edited frames in the studio archive, catalogued by project, client, and rights window.
340+
Published editorial pages across 18 international titles since 2017.
22+4
A four-person in-house unit and a vetted freelance crew of 22 across four continents.
5d
Average turnaround on a six-image campaign — personally culled and graded, no outsourcing.

Next step

Briefs go to [email protected].

A two-paragraph note is enough. We answer within one business day, with a date for a call and a short read of the brief.

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