Mónica Quesada Cordero was born in Heredia, Costa Rica, in 1980.
She was just six courses short of graduating with a degree in chemistry when she abandoned test tubes for trays of developing solution and plunged headlong into photography. And she hasn’t looked back since.
Two years later, she graduated from the Colegio Universitario de Alajuela with a degree in photography, and in the few years since, she has built a reputation beyond the borders of her home country as a reliable, passionate and talented sphotographer.
After six months with the daily business newspaper La República, Mónica spent three years as the staff photographer at The Tico Times, an English-Language weekly based in San José, Costa Rica.
There, she developed her eye for compelling images and her passion for telling stories through her lens.
In 2007, Costa Rica’s Journalists’ Association awarded her the nation’s top prize for press photography, the Premio Mario Roa, for a photo taken during the eviction and destruction of a shantytown.
She was also one of 20 finalists in the Wine Photo 2008 International Photo Contests, held in Vinícola Batan, Italy, and was invited to participate in the First “Reggio Foto Fest”, held in Reggio Calabria, Italy, in November 2008, a photography festival that had a special exhibition of women photojournalists’ work around the globe.
Since December of 2007, Mónica has worked as a freelance photographer, dividing her time between working in commercial photography, leading nature photography tours, shooting for Costa Rican and U.S. publications (including National Geographic Adventure, The Miami Herald and others) and indulging her true passion – documentary photography.
Monica is also string photographer for the international news agency Reuters and a contributing photographer for the Costa Rican office of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR).
Fluent in Spanish, English and French, Mónica has traveled throughout the Americas and Europe, and is constantly looking for new experiences.
To book a photo tour with Mónica, go to fotoverdetours.com
