Emiliano Zúñiga Hernández (b.1990) is a photographer based in Costa Rica. In 2016 he co-founded the non-profit association Costa Rica Initiative (2016 – 2019), a healing center focused on facilitating working methods with the intention of freeing participants from deep-rooted fears, self-judgments, limiting beliefs and behaviors of self-sabotage.
Since 2023, he has been teaching and co-facilitating creative workshops that invites its participants to explore their relationship with their past and present contexts, through a series of homeworks and group feedback aimed to examine personal motivations and emotional responses in parallel to the production of photographs, texts, videos, audios, drawings, among others forms of creative expression. On the other hand, the author develops personal photographic projects that seek to establish a relationship between the oneiric and daily life.
In 2020, he self-published his first photobook, EN LA MONTAÑA. The following year, in 2021, he released his first collaborative publication, n o service. In 2022, he created Lapso de vigilia, a folio produced and distributed by Underlife Editions. His first official monograph, Paraíso, was published in 2023 by Trespasser Books in Austin, Texas, and is distributed worldwide. The same year, Paraíso (Anzuelos), a photographic and written essay exploring the founding and dissolution of a healing center and the emotional journey behind the creation of the photobook, was published by the digital magazine Wimblu. In 2024, he collaborated on Donde no vivo, a publication that delves into traditional printing techniques, including letterpress, tea-toned prints, and handmade binding. In November 2024, his work was featured in a group exhibition at Kominek Gallery in Berlin, showcasing a selection of photographs from Trespasser Books.