THE TEAM
Developed through sustained collaboration since late 2024, A Great Day in Ñiu Yor (AGDÑY) is an artist-led collective of eight New York City based photographers, each deeply rooted in their communities. Each photographer invited participants from their own networks, ensuring the project was built through proximity, care and lived connection. The resulting body of work is shaped by collective authorship - by the community, for the community.
Director / Photographer
Alejandro, began a defining journey when his family moved to the U.S. discovering his passion for photography through his father's 35mm camera, he quickly fell in love with the art form.
He dedicates his lens to amplifying voices often overlooked through captivating stills & motion film. His work delves into the raw essence of reality, employing vibrant colors and close-up shots to accentuate the true grit of human nature and the emotions that define it.
For the past decade ale has been based in Brooklyn, ÑY. — remaining an “inquieto,” perpetually restless, always eager to immerse himself in a new experience, seeking fresh perspectives and inspirations outside the east coast.
Featured in booooooom, creatura, photoville, monad agency, perjeus
Producer / Photographer
Monica Patten is a Peruvian-Irish New Yorker born and raised in the Inwood neighborhood of Uptown NYC. Currently based in Queens, her event and portrait photography explores community, memory, and diasporic identity. Through cultural celebrations, traditional dance, and intimate gatherings, she examines how ritual and togetherness carry stories of ancestry, resilience, and belonging across generations. Her photography holds the tension between preservation and reinvention; asking what we inherit, what we keep, and how we pass legacy forward. Her editorial and commercial clients include Patreon and Irish Repertory Theatre, with exhibition credits at Photoville and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA).
Producer / Photographer
Francely Flores is an Indigenous (Mixteca & Ngiba) independent photojournalist born in occupied Karankawa land and raised in occupied Lenape land. She focuses on documenting the stories of Indigenous peoples, immigrants, and Bronx residents. She began documenting protests during the summer of 2020. To Francely this was a way that she could be involved in engaging with individuals who also felt the failure of various social structures. Her work aims to support individuals, not solely through documenting but by being involved in supporting their demands.
Photographer
Cesar Florencio Cortes is a photographer and filmmaker raised in The Bronx, now studying at the California Institute of The Arts under a full ride scholarship. From Mexican descent, his visuals strive to represent a sincerity and truth that lies within having Hispanic culture and more broadly-being human.
Photographer
Carolina Jimenez is a Dominican-American visual artist from New York City whose practice utilizes photography and installation to build bridges across time and space. She is interested in the continual shaping and reshaping of memory-how do we choose what to carry with us and what to let go? How do these choices shape the personal and the collective?
Her work has been featured in spaces across New York such as the Bronx Documentary Center, FABNyc, the Andrew Freedman Home, Photoville, and the International Center for Photography.
She is most inspired by the stories, hopes, dreams and fears of her neighbors, elders, friends, and family.
Photographer
Itzel Alejandra is a Mexican-American director & photographer from El Paso, TX currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Through collaborative lifestyle portraits, gifs and video she seeks to unravel identity formation, personal aspirations and the quest of belonging. Itzel has documented the lives and stories of the Latine community+ in New York and Texas working for major media outlets such as NPR, Vice, Elle, and Remezcla. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Forbes, Nylon and Musée Magazine and exhibited at Pace Gallery NY, Greenwich House, and Kates-Ferri Project.
Photographer
Francesca Stolcke is a photographer born and raised in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, with Ecuadorian and German roots. Working primarily in black-and-white film documentary and street photography, her practice explores identity, community, and human connection, often focusing on the subtle moments that reveal the emotional and psychological depth of everyday life. Stolcke’s work has been exhibited at the Penumbra Foundation, The Holy Art Gallery, and Monad Agency, and featured in Vogue Philippines and Hypebeast. She is an alum of the BRIDGE x ASMP mentorship program and a member of Scope of Work (SOW).
Photographer
Shaira Chaer is a multi-hyphenate creative born and raised on unceded Lenape land in the Bronx, New York to parents from Kiskeya-Ayiti and Al-Sham. A former artist-in-residence at Ankhlave on Governors Island (2025), Chaer’s work and words have been showcased at The Old Stone House, Tafaria Castle & Centre for the Arts in Kenya, Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx Arts Space, Junior High Gallery L.A., New Women Space, Hinchas Press, Convergence Magazine, Remezcla, Vibe Magazine and more.