VANESSA CASALLAS

Photographer & Creative Director

My mind usually moves between two places.

One part of me is watching: the position of an athlete’s hands, the tension before a routine, the way a team occupies a space or how the light changes a movement. The other part is already connecting those details—thinking about the next image, the complete sequence and the story they could build together.

I didn’t come to photography by leaving advertising behind. I brought it with me. I studied advertising and marketing in Bogotá and later continued my photography studies in Miami. That combination shaped the way I work: I rarely see a photograph as an isolated image. I think about where it belongs, what it communicates and what it can become.

Over the past few years, gymnastics has become the place where those two sides of my work meet most naturally. It has allowed me to photograph athletes, work alongside coaches and gyms, cover competitions and develop campaigns for sportswear brands. Sometimes I’m directing every detail of a portrait; other times, I’m responding to something that will happen only once.

Casala Media is where I bring all of that together—photography, creative direction and social content—with movement as the starting point.