Taking to the Streets is an Ibero-American community of street photography that was born on September 10, 2022, in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, The project began with a talk and a photographic walk. Initially conceived as a local meeting space, the project grew organically thanks to the exchange between photographers, invitations, collaborations and links with other scenes, until it consolidated as a community that articulates views, practices and dialogues in different countries of Ibero-America.

Since its origin, Tomar la Calle has been understood neither as a school nor as a rigid institution, but as an open space for meeting, exchange, growth and dissemination around street photography and the documentation of everyday life. The street is here a common territory, a shared stage and a starting point to observe, reflect and narrate our realities.

This growth led to the creation of Tomar la Calle FotoFest, a festival that emerged as a celebration of the community's anniversary and that, edition after edition, expanded its scope from the local to the national and later to the Ibero-American. The festival, together with the community's permanent activities, functions as a platform for visibility, dialogue and connection between photographers, collectives and diverse audiences.

Community at present

Currently, Tomar la Calle is structured as an expanding network composed of 18 ambassadors active in different cities in Mexico and South America, responsible for promoting local activities, photographic walks and meeting dynamics in their respective territories.

The community also has a photographic catalog made up of 17 members, selected through a call for entries, which brings together projects and views representative of street photography and everyday life in Ibero-America. This catalog serves as a platform for the dissemination and circulation of work, as well as a point of reference for the work developed within the community.

The project is coordinated by an organizational core of 9 members, in charge of the planning, management, curatorship, communication and strategic development of Tomar la Calle and its associated projects, including Take the Street FotoFest.

These numbers are not conceived as closed figures, but as a reflection of a living and constantly growing process.

Growth and expansion dynamics

Tomar la Calle maintains an open and sustained growth model through three annual calls for proposals, launched every four months, with two main objectives:

- Incorporate new members to the photographic catalog, strengthening the diversity of views and contexts represented.

- Add new ambassadors in cities where there is no representation yet, or reinforce the presence in those where the community is already active.

This system allows for an organic, territorial and curatorial expansion, prioritizing active participation, community engagement and the construction of solid local networks over accelerated or merely numerical growth.

Mission

To build and sustain an Ibero-American community of street photography that fosters encounters, the exchange of ideas and the dissemination of photographic projects that document daily life from personal, critical and diverse perspectives, strengthening the links between photographers from different cultural contexts.

Vision

To consolidate our position as an Ibero-American network of reference in street photography, recognized for its community focus, its diversity of voices and its capacity to generate spaces for visibility, reflection and collaboration between photographers, collectives, festivals and cultural institutions.

Objectives

- To generate spaces for face-to-face and virtual meetings between street photographers from Ibero-America.

- To make visible photographic projects that document daily life from different social, cultural and geographic realities.

- Promote activities such as photographic walks, exhibitions, festivals, talks and publications.

- Strengthen collaboration networks among photographers, collectives and cultural institutions.

- To build an archive and a photographic catalog that reflects the diversity of Ibero-American street photography.

- Promote the exchange of experiences, processes and views without imposing styles, currents or unique discourses.

Goals

- Expand and consolidate the community in more cities and countries in Latin America.

- Position Tomar la Calle and Tomar la Calle FotoFest as reference platforms for contemporary street photography.

- To facilitate the circulation of photographic work and projects in different exhibition and editorial contexts.

- Maintain organic, horizontal and sustainable growth, focused on the community and not on the competition.

Tomar la Calle understands street photography as a living and situated practice. More than producing images, it seeks to build community, generate dialogue and document daily life from multiple Ibero-American perspectives.