Sebastián Hidalgo

Documentary photography presented its importance to Sebastián Hidalgo in Mexico in 2008. At the tender-age of twelve he adopted the roll of the observer to witnesses the passing of his grandfather for his absent family members.  It was this experience which formulated his devotions to photojournalism and taught him to photograph with empathy and willingness to grow in conjunction with the lives he finds in front of his camera.

Sebastián Hidalgo is a 23-year-old, freelance visual journalist and reporter based in the Chicago and the Midwest. His work focuses the social and systemic pressures and issues in many of Chicago’s Black and Latino communities.  Hidalgo began his professional career freelancing for hyper local news outlets such as Austin Weekly News, Wednesday Journal, and Forest Park Review and interned with The Chicago Reporter during the city’s most violent year and the 2016  presidential elections .

In 2017, he was selected as City Bureau–a community-oriented, civic-journalism lab–photojournalist fellowship, where he focused on the social and cultural impacts of gentrification in his home community of Pilsen. The project,“The Quietest Form of Displacement in a Changing Barrio” was featured on the New York Times – Lens, New York Times Race/Related instagram page, Roads & Kingdoms, BESE Media. And has been awarded with Peter Lisagor Award at Headline Club Chicago for Best of Photography in 2017, a finalist for Best photojournalism in the National Association of Hispanic Journalism-Chicago, Second Place for Feature photography from Illinois Press Association, and more.

Today, Hidalgo continues to freelance for hyper-local and national publication such as In These Times, Chicago Magazine, Belt Magazine, The Chicago Reader, Youth Radio, Illinois Humanities and Chicago Public Media-WBEZ, where he currently works as their digital producer.