i’m a california-based director and photographer. for more than twenty years, my focus has been the people mainstream visual culture tends to look past — trans and non-binary communities, survivors, sex workers, and anyone navigating a body the world insists on treating as other. a graduate of uc berkeley and usc’s film production mfa program, i move fluidly between motion and stills, editorial and advertising, always chasing the unguarded moment when a subject forgets the lens is there.

i shoot extensively on film — polaroid 690, hasselblad h6x, holga, and various toy cameras — favoring double exposures and whatever experimentation the moment allows, turning to sony digital bodies when the work demands otherwise. i treat every frame as a single-frame movie still: giving my subjects the space and freedom to tell their own story, on their own terms, while i document them simply being themselves. to my mind, visuals are about infusing the world as it is with what we wish it could be.

i’m also selective about who i work with. i’ve spent years creating campaigns for some of the world’s most recognizable brands, and these days i choose to bring that experience to people and companies who stand by their values, even when it would be easier not to. i am the photographer whom people and companies with a genuine moral compass turn to — those whose products, ads, and supply chains are built to do no harm, whose vision of the world includes all types of people, and whose bottom line includes concrete and non-negotiable ethics.

in my acclaimed book outside & in between (2019), i spent seven years documenting life beyond the gender binary, and it remains one of the defining photographic explorations of non-binary identity. all the while, i’ve turned my lens to some of the country’s most urgent and under-covered stories: survivors of sexual violence, the toll of covid on trans communities, reporting from inside west coast hospital wards as one of the first journalists granted access, underground abortion providers, clergy abuse, and the everyday weight of gender pronouns. i’m currently at work on two new books — eunoia, cinematic images of women reclaiming violent landscapes, and all that is man, a portrait series giving visibility to bisexual men across america.

my editorial photography has run in vogue, the new york times, vanity fair, rolling stone, harper’s bazaar, mother jones, the wall street journal, playboy, dazed & confused, vogue germany, vogue italia, the hollywood reporter, new york magazine, fast company, teen vogue, bust, wired, dwell, elle, nylon, marie claire, bloomberg businessweek, & more, while my advertising work has appeared in campaigns for apple, google, levi’s, mastercard, t-mobile, amazon, billboard, and canon, amongst others. i’m also the host of the other pod, a conversation-driven podcast on identity and creativity, with guests including killer mike, george saunders, kathleen hanna, rapsody, and jamelle bouie.

with an mfa from usc, i seamlessly integrate motion into everything i do, approaching any scene as a film, with an idea of character and intent. my recent directing work includes the short film toni, an official selection at multiple domestic & international festivals.

you can email me at chloe@chloeaftel.com or call at 510-579-3592.