Johnny Acero (b. 1972). From as early as age eight, Johnny was experimenting and expressing his passion for art with his own camera and darkroom. He soon understood that his most meaningful achievements were always connected to art—a reality his parents not only accepted but also encouraged and supported. His father and mother, Johnny’s greatest influences, showed their pride during family gatherings or among friends. While other parents boasted about their children’s academic accomplishments, Alejandro and Margie would rise with love and pride to show Johnny’s photographs and paintings.
The turning point came when Johnny decided to make his parents proud by earning a good grade in math. He thought that, because his father was a mathematician and educator, following in his footsteps would make him happy. Johnny worked hard in school and, with the help of his classmates, earned a perfect grade in algebra. When he came home to share the news, his parents were pleased, but the moment passed with little fanfare. Days later, Johnny won second place in a local art competition. This time, his parents were overwhelmed with pride. They gathered the family, presented his award, and framed his painting. For months, his father would wake up, look at Johnny in their beautiful home in the mountains of Colombia, and say, “My son, the artist.”
Nothing was the same after that day. Johnny threw himself into what he loved—photography and painting. He traveled throughout Colombia with his father, photographing Indigenous communities, deserts, mountains, farmers, hands, and faces that slowly shaped his love for portraiture. Johnny realized that while painting allowed him to create anything, photography allowed him to paint with what existed, making his still forming vision more challenging and more honest.
Today, with more than 20,000 negatives and countless drives filled with images of his travels, his vision, and his dreams, Johnny is a photographer who focuses on humanity. Though he has taken countless travel photographs, he is devoted to painting with his camera. These portraits allow Johnny to see himself, to understand the world, and to embrace a present reality that is often far from ideal for human beings.
Photography opened the path to cinema—what he calls “the fourth dimension of photography.” Johnny has directed films and written stories that are always portraits of himself and his experiences in Colombia, New York, Paris, Warsaw, Miami, and Madrid, among others. His wandering spirit is simply the result of his deep passion for humankind. Today, Johnny photographs on his own terms—for magazines, exhibits, books, and from a personal need to curate his life through images.