We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Isabella Granada a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Isabella, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Currently working on an image/poetry book with my colleague, Alejandro, titled “MENERGY”, which explores themes of identity, sexuality, gender, and more. We fell in love with this project and started gathering inspiration from the 70’s and 80’s gay scene in Europe and in the US. I kept wanting to explore our little corner of the gay scene in Bogota, Colombia, where I was born and raised, and this project gave us the best excuse. We are collaborating with graphic designers, poets, illustrators and musicians to get the feeling and backdrop for this book just the way we want it. I take care of most of the photography in the book, but we collaborate as creative and visual directors.

Not only do we get to spend time with friends while working toward a project we all feel good about, but it feels great to keep expanding my passion for art, movement, dance, music, light… and men!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Isabella and I was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. My journey with photography and video began at 13 years old when i was gifted a Canon Rebel T3i for christmas, and I haven´t stopped learning the craft ever since then. Graduated from a Filmmaking program in New York in 2022, and I have spent the past 5 years working on set for various filmmaking projects.

Most of my experience lies in cinematography and camera teams, but mainly I direct my own projects. Usually focusing on visual poetry, I aim to create a body of work that not only tells stories, but also can influence people to experiment for themselves.

I aim to maintain a pure goal for the content I create, and it communicates more than the face value of the thing we’re portraying, but instead it expresses from within the essence of the goal. My work tries to really break down the core ideas and themes of whatever the project may be about. No bells and whistles, but staying true to the main idea itself.

The current project I’m working on is called “MENERGY” which expresses and explores ideas about gender, identity, sexuality, and culture. This project will be a mixture between a photography and poetry book, featuring work about the mentioned themes.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

When you’re entering the workforce, you are always told to learn to be a “fast learner”. I tried and failed, and tried and made mistakes, even though I was doing the best I could.

Slowly, through trial and error I learned that there is more value in being a good learner instead of a fast learner.
A good learner might forget the occasional detail, but they always make sure to understand the main concepts and reasons behind every action.
For example, learning 100 things on the first day of work won’t matter if next week you are presented with a problem and can’t come up with a solution. It is important to understand the core philosophy of the actions and situations.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The power of friendship!

There was a time where I was feeling really lost in my career. I didn’t know what jobs to apply to, I didn’t know what department of work I wanted to cultivate my skills in, and I also didn’t have a very consistent network.
I learned slowly to start seeing my work colleagues as not only a work network, but also a support system. I could come to them with insecurities about my work, and I made sure they knew they could come to me, too.

I also learned how to reach out to my personal friends about work. A job can become less scary and daunting if you get a hand from your friends and colleagues. I would be nowhere without friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: isabellagranada.com
• Instagram: isgridddd

Image Credits
Celine Aliaga, Alejandro Rincon, Ramón, Camilo Tapias