Eli Farinango is a Kichwa artist and visual storyteller, born in Kichwa territory (Quito, Ecuador) and raised in Algonquin territory (Ottawa, Canada). Through her practice she explores the vastness and beauty of the healing journey while making intentional space to reclaim personal and ancestral memory through image-making and collaborative processes.
Her documentary work focuses on cultural identity, ancestral healing practices, the connection between body/territory and imagining archives. She is a graduate from the University of Toronto (2004), and a graduate of the Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism Program at the International Center for Photography, where she was awarded the Jan Mulder Scholarship.
She has attended residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts (Trainings for The Not Yet & Indigenous Media Residency), she was a Women Photograph Mentee (2019), was part of The Eddie Adams workshop in 2021, attended the New York Times Portfolio review (2021) and most recently she was invited as an artist in residence (2022) at the Center for Photography in Woodstock.
Her documentary work focuses on cultural identity, ancestral healing practices, the connection between body/territory and imagining archives. She is a graduate from the University of Toronto (2004), and a graduate of the Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism Program at the International Center for Photography, where she was awarded the Jan Mulder Scholarship.
She has attended residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts (Trainings for The Not Yet & Indigenous Media Residency), she was a Women Photograph Mentee (2019), was part of The Eddie Adams workshop in 2021, attended the New York Times Portfolio review (2021) and most recently she was invited as an artist in residence (2022) at the Center for Photography in Woodstock.
Her work appears in The New Republic, NPR, Where The Leaves Fall, Terremoto Magazine, and has been exhibited in various venues across North America including Photoville, Toronto Media Arts Center, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, the International Center of Photography, and the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples.
Her documentary work has received support from Women Photograph, Indigenous Photograph, National Geographic Society and Ontario Arts Council. She is a member of Women Photograph, Diversify Photo’s UPnext, Indigenous Photograph and Kichwa Hatari.
She is currently based between Hamilton, Canada and New York.
Her documentary work has received support from Women Photograph, Indigenous Photograph, National Geographic Society and Ontario Arts Council. She is a member of Women Photograph, Diversify Photo’s UPnext, Indigenous Photograph and Kichwa Hatari.
She is currently based between Hamilton, Canada and New York.