Christopher Valdes is a Cuban-American photographer born in South Florida and currently based in Jersey City, New Jersey. He fell in love with film photography in 2014 and has been exposing rolls ever since. Over the years, film has taught him patience, intentionality, and a deeper awareness of the world around him.

Valdes’ photographic practice is difficult to define by any single style or subject. Rather than limiting himself to a particular scene, he follows whatever catches his eye. His work spans portraiture, landscapes, architecture, and conceptual imagery, allowing curiosity and instinct to guide the process.

From 2021 to 2023, he spent considerable time photographing synth-wave, dark-wave, and EBM artists throughout Brooklyn, New York. This period gave him the opportunity to photograph musicians whose work he listens to every day, merging their creative expression with the obscure grain and character of high-speed film stocks—all captured without flash.

For Valdes, photography is an ongoing exploration of light, atmosphere, and chance. There is something humbling about experiencing what light can do and witnessing an image slowly come to life through the chemistry of film. When something catches his eye and there is a camera in his hand, his body responds with the firing of the shutter—and the rest is left to the fate of the chemicals.

Outside of photography, Christopher enjoys modulating sound waves on his microKORG synthesizer over 707 drum kicks, being a silly goose, and is also a graduate of Rutgers University’s Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.