Cristóbal Olivares, born in Santiago, Chile in 1988, is a documentary photographer with a special interest in social affairs. He is the co-founder of Buen Lugar, an independent editorial initiative that publishes books and photography zines.
Cristóbal is a 2023 National Geographic Explorer.From 2014 to 2016 he was part of the VII Photo agency mentor program
In 2019, he was named Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellow.
In 2021 his work The Eternity of Tomorrow was nominated for Online Video of the Year and won 2nd prize in the World Press Photo Contest
He has been recognized and awarded with prizes, residences and grants from different organizations such as Magnum Foundation, World Press Photo, MAST Foundation for Photography Grant(Italy), Open Society Foundation(USA), POY Latam, Photographic Museum of Humanity Grant(IT), New York Portfolio Review(USA), Goethe-Institut, Visura Grant(USA), Sony World Photography Awards(UK), PhotoEspaña, ENS(Colombia), National Council for the Culture and Arts(Chile), Images Singulières Festival(France), Prix Isem(FR), Querétaro Photofest(Mexico), FIFV(Chile), Rodrigo Rojas De Negri Award(Chile) and several times winner at the National Photojournalism Awards (FotoPrensa) in Chile including the Photo of the Year in 2017. He is a main character in the documentaries Rectángulo en el Ojo about Chilean contemporary photographers and A Conscious Dream by Photographic Museum of Humanity. He has published four solo books and five collaborative/collective books.
The New York Times(USA), Bloomberg News(USA), Businessweek(USA), Internazionale(Italy), Greenpeace(International), Stern-Crime(Germany), Der Spiegel (Germany), FT Weekend Magazine (UK), Le Monde(France), M Magazine(France), Le Monde Diplomatique(France), Society(France), The Washington Post(USA), Time(USA), ZEIT(Germany), Liberation(France), Surface(USA), The Guardian(UK), FishEye(France), The Clinic(Chile), Disegno Daily(UK), El País(España), Ojo de Pez(Spain), MediaPart(France), Qué Pasa(Chile), Revista Sábado(Chile), Revista Paula(Chile), PAT(Chile), Revista Anfibia(Argentina), VIA Magazine(Canada), among others.