In Somos Animales Poéticos, Cristina Velásquez challenges the traditional gaze by presenting the body and the landscape as shifting terrains of memory. Rather than a static cultural portrait, the work uses gesture and fragmentation to examine how gender and heritage are performed, inherited, and resisted.
Velásquez’s accompanying texts, written in Spanish and translated to English, anchor the images in intimate, personal experiences, reflecting on feminine resilience and collective imagination. Domestic interiors, landscapes, and the body are shown as sites of both memory and change. The book itself—its open spine bound with bold red thread—echoes the raw vulnerability of its contents.
Cristina Velásquez is the recipient of the first Dust Publishing Prize.
Somos Animales Poéticos is available for pre-order and will ship in mid-Spring 2026
More Details
Printed in Denmark
9” x 10.4”
168 pages
Soft cover book with drop spine
Front cover fold out
Sewn with red thread
Text by Cristina Velásquez
Design by Emily Sheffer and Cristina Velásquez
Published by Dust Collective
Spring 2026
ISBN 979-8-9947363-1-9
Cristina Velásquez (b. Colombia) is an artist and publisher based between Austin and Bogotá. She received an MFA from the Bard College–International Center of Photography program in New York City in 2017. Velásquez’s work has been exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée, the ICP Museum, ArtBo, MoMA PS1, the Houston Center for Photography, among others, and is held in both private and public collections.
Her photobooks have been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Research Institute, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, ICP, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and George Washington University, among others.
Recent awards and residencies include the Lucie Scholarship Prize (2025), Yaddo Residency (2025), the Dust Collective Prize (2025), the Ramona Residency (2025), ReGeneration4 at the Musée de l’Elysée (2020), Light Work (2019), the Carol Crow Fellowship (2019), and the Kris Graves Projects LOST II Book Prize (2019).
Velásquez is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of New Poetics Publishing, an independent press that collaborates with emerging artists on contemporary and experimental approaches to photography in book form. She is also the art director at Paisajes Coloniales. Velásquez is represented by Assembly Gallery.
In Somos Animales Poéticos, Cristina Velásquez challenges the traditional gaze by presenting the body and the landscape as shifting terrains of memory. Rather than a static cultural portrait, the work uses gesture and fragmentation to examine how gender and heritage are performed, inherited, and resisted.
Velásquez’s accompanying texts, written in Spanish and translated to English, anchor the images in intimate, personal experiences, reflecting on feminine resilience and collective imagination. Domestic interiors, landscapes, and the body are shown as sites of both memory and change. The book itself—its open spine bound with bold red thread—echoes the raw vulnerability of its contents.
Cristina Velásquez is the recipient of the first Dust Publishing Prize.
Somos Animales Poéticos is available for pre-order and will ship in mid-Spring 2026
More Details
Printed in Denmark
9” x 10.4”
168 pages
Soft cover book with drop spine
Front cover fold out
Sewn with red thread
Text by Cristina Velásquez
Design by Emily Sheffer and Cristina Velásquez
Published by Dust Collective
Spring 2026
ISBN 979-8-9947363-1-9
Cristina Velásquez (b. Colombia) is an artist and publisher based between Austin and Bogotá. She received an MFA from the Bard College–International Center of Photography program in New York City in 2017. Velásquez’s work has been exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée, the ICP Museum, ArtBo, MoMA PS1, the Houston Center for Photography, among others, and is held in both private and public collections.
Her photobooks have been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Research Institute, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, ICP, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and George Washington University, among others.
Recent awards and residencies include the Lucie Scholarship Prize (2025), Yaddo Residency (2025), the Dust Collective Prize (2025), the Ramona Residency (2025), ReGeneration4 at the Musée de l’Elysée (2020), Light Work (2019), the Carol Crow Fellowship (2019), and the Kris Graves Projects LOST II Book Prize (2019).
Velásquez is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of New Poetics Publishing, an independent press that collaborates with emerging artists on contemporary and experimental approaches to photography in book form. She is also the art director at Paisajes Coloniales. Velásquez is represented by Assembly Gallery.
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