Sandra Hernandez
Sandra Hernández, also known as Vita Flumen, is a Mexican-Canadian photographer based in Mexico. A former architect, she transitioned to photography a decade ago, focusing on documenting everyday stories that often go unnoticed. Her work explores the universality of the human experience. She is a Fujifilm ambassador, a member of Women Photograph and The Raw Society, and an alum of the Eddie Adams Workshop. She is also the founder of Observadores Urbanos, a Latin American street photography platform.
Her photography has been exhibited in over fifty shows across four continents and has received awards and honors in international competitions. Sandra has collaborated with Reuters, various NGOs, cultural institutions, and media outlets such as The Guardian, Forbes, BBC Mundo, Zeke Magazine, and others, documenting diverse communities and social issues.
Her recent projects explore themes such as human rights, gender, and the ways people interact with and experience built and urban environments, particularly within Latin America. Her work often highlights overlooked narratives and creates space for reflection on everyday experiences.
Sandra is also the official photographer of La Carrera Panamericana, one of the world’s most renowned automobile rallies. This role allows her to explore themes of tradition, endurance, and community through the lens of one of Mexico’s most iconic cultural events.
Beyond her photographic practice, Sandra Hernández is dedicated to education and mentorship. She serves as a faculty member at the School of Architecture, Art, and Design (EAAD) at Tecnológico de Monterrey, where she teaches photography and architecture. Sandra also leads photography workshops and delivers lectures at festivals and conferences worldwide, sharing her knowledge and experience with emerging photographers.
Her approach to photography blends her architectural background with a deep curiosity about the human condition. She believes in the power of visual storytelling to foster empathy, raise awareness, and create meaningful connections across cultures.
As an educator, she is committed to empowering new generations of photographers to use visual storytelling as a tool for social change. Her teaching emphasizes the importance of visual literacy, ethical storytelling, and personal voice.
For Sandra, photography is not just a profession but a way of life—a medium for reflection, dialogue, and change. She sees her practice as a continuous search for meaning, rooted in everyday encounters and shaped by a desire to document life’s quiet, transformative moments.
Sandra Hernández’s photographic journey is deeply personal, driven by a desire to understand and portray the complexities of everyday life. Her work transcends borders and highlights the resilience and dignity of ordinary people. Through her lens, she captures the subtle beauty and intricate narratives that often go unnoticed, inviting viewers to pause and reflect on the shared human experience. Sandra continues to explore new projects that merge visual storytelling with community engagement, always seeking to amplify underrepresented voices and foster collective memory. For her, photography is a bridge between people—an act of witnessing and a quiet form of resistance against forgetting.
Sandra Hernández has held 11 solo exhibitions in Mexico, Cuba, and France, and participated in 53 group shows across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. She edited Antología de Fotografía de Calle Mexicana (2021), the first street photography book in Mexico. Her work has appeared in 28 collective photobooks and publications in Germany, Spain, the U.S., France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Poland, including projects by Women Photograph, ICP, and Eyeshot Magazine. She has contributed to The Guardian, La Vanguardia, BBC Mundo, The Raw Society Magazine, ZEKE Magazine, and others.