There are photographers who document culture, and there are photographers whose images eventually become part of how that culture is remembered. Renell Medrano is increasingly operating in the second category.
The Dominican-American photographer and director was born and raised in the Bronx, New York, and her work continues to draw heavily from both the city that raised her and the Dominican heritage of her family. Those two worlds — New York and the Caribbean — have given Medrano a visual vocabulary that can feel intimate and observational even when the assignment involves some of the biggest names in fashion, entertainment and sport.
Medrano began photographing the people around her as a teenager. She later studied photography at Parsons School of Design, where her early series Untitled Youth followed four teenage girls coming of age in the Bronx. The project earned recognition from The New York Times Lens Blog and established themes that would remain central to her career: youth, vulnerability, community and the complicated process of being seen.
From the Bronx to Fashion’s Biggest Rooms
The scale of Medrano’s career has changed considerably since those early projects.
Her editorial work has appeared across publications including Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ and W, while her commercial portfolio includes work for brands such as Burberry, Gucci and Prada. Her current portfolio also features projects involving Karol G for Reebok, Rosalía for New Balance, Kendall Jenner, Halle Berry, Jennie, Ayo Edebiri and André 3000.
One of her most widely recognized images arrived in 2022 when Medrano photographed the cover of Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Lamar appears wearing a crown of thorns while holding a child, transforming what could have been conventional album artwork into an image loaded with family, responsibility, vulnerability and symbolism.
Her influence has continued to expand. In April 2026, Victoria’s Secret selected Medrano to photograph its global “Season of Strapless” campaign starring WNBA star Angel Reese. The Barbados-shot campaign marked Reese’s historic appearance as the first WNBA player to front a Victoria’s Secret campaign.
Dominican Identity Isn’t a Footnote
What separates Medrano’s work from a résumé built purely around celebrity access is how consistently she returns to place.
Her Dominican heritage has repeatedly become the subject rather than simply the background of her work.
For PAMPARA, Medrano returned to the Dominican Republic and photographed communities and landscapes connected to the country where her parents were born and where she spent summers growing up. The project explored memory, identity and the complicated relationship people in the diaspora can have with the idea of home.
That perspective also appeared in LAMBÓN, her 2024 New York exhibition. The show brought together editorial photography, personal work and images created during travels through places including the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Egypt. For Medrano, the exhibition was also an opportunity to challenge familiar assumptions about communities and people who are frequently photographed from the outside rather than represented from within.
From Photographer to Creative Founder
Perhaps the most important development in Medrano’s career is that she is no longer simply waiting for publications or fashion houses to commission her point of view.
She is building platforms for it herself.
ICE Studios has become an outlet through which Medrano can experiment across photography, clothing, film and creative direction. That universe expanded with the creation of ICE Magazine, a publication designed around women Medrano felt had historically been viewed through someone else’s lens.
The first issue grew out of an open casting call in 2024 that attracted more than 500 women. Medrano subsequently developed the project with an all-women creative team. In 2025, ICE returned with Volume 2, focusing on Atlanta and the women whose style, confidence and ambition define the city’s culture.
That move matters.
Fashion photography has traditionally depended on photographers interpreting someone else’s brand, publication or celebrity. Medrano is increasingly reversing that relationship: building an ecosystem where her own perspective determines the publication, casting, clothing, location and cultural conversation.
Why Renell Medrano Matters
Medrano’s rise represents something larger happening within contemporary photography.
She can photograph a global fashion campaign and still make the image feel connected to a real person. She can photograph celebrity without allowing celebrity to overwhelm the photograph. And she can bring the Bronx and Dominican culture into luxury spaces without presenting either as something that needs to be translated for an outside audience.
That balance between access and authenticity is difficult to manufacture.
It is also why Renell Medrano’s career is worth watching beyond the list of famous people and brands already in her portfolio. The photographer from the Bronx is no longer simply being invited into culture’s biggest rooms.
She is increasingly building rooms of her own
Photos Courtesy of Renell Medrano.