Valeria Mendez was born in Mendoza in 1969. She has a degree in Social Communication from the National University of Cuyo, currently editor of Inmendoza.com. She began her career as a journalist and photographer at Primera Fila Magazine in Mendoza and was journalist of Diario UNO from its creation until 1999. She ventured into black and white copying techniques with Daniel Barraco. She is the author of the few portraits that the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra has allowed herself to be taken, (published in Primera Fila and Página 12) and of the cover photography of the books Duelo (Ediciones en Danza 2005), Mitos y Leyendas Cuyanas (Editorial Alfaguara , 1998) and Los Animales Hembra (Editorial Municipal Ciudad de Mendoza, 2013). Her photograph Fields of Sunflowers in Buenos Aires was selected for the National Geographic Creative Collection. She was editor of The Park Hyatt Experience magazine of the Hyatt chain and collaborated as a photographer and journalist for the magazines El Conocedor, Bacanal, Winds, Nueva and Weekend.

She has participated in 13 photography exhibitions in wineries, halls and museums in Mendoza. Her photographic works have been acquired by the Government of Mendoza, Chacras Park, private collectors from Argentina and the United States. Since 2007, she has continuously developed different series, including Estudio Arbol, Piedras, Montañas y Pájaros, in which an obsessive search to discover the deep physiognomy of various elements of nature persists. The author takes advantage of new technology tools to give photographic technique an avant-garde dimension in line with new trends in the Visual Arts. Prints on painter's cloth and cotton papers allow pigments to emerge as if they were brushstrokes. His clinical eye zooms in and out, highlighting the universal micro-worlds. In her most recent series, called Insect Rebellion, she combines urban photographs with photographs of insects with a clear call for the ecological restoration of the planet.

Residency project:

"I have been working since 2023 on the photographic series The Rebellion of the Insects in which I play as a saga, transforming the insects that I manage to photograph into characters that rebel against urban advance. The work is composed of large-format images of heritage buildings and architectural structures that have been intervened and crossed with the Bichos series. This serie is in constant development.

I am interested in the residency because I need work time in a natural environment like Saline royale presents to search for insect species in various ecosystems. The environment surrounding the site is ideal for my work."