The Artist

Daniel Montero

Photography · Colombian-born, New York-based

“I create photographs to bring stillness into spaces and light into people’s lives.”

Photography has been part of Montero’s life since he watched his father capture family trips on camera. At fifteen he was handed his first professional camera; he taught himself everything after that. Eleven years on, his work is a study in solitude, geometry, and atmosphere — mountains wrapped in mist, reflective coastlines, cities at the exact moment their windows out-glow the sky.

The work is built to do one specific thing to a room: calm it and charge it at once. Not quiet — held. It finds the one second when a place aligns, and stays there.

The arc so far

  1. 2015Self-taught, age fifteen

    His father hands him his first professional camera. He teaches himself everything that follows.

  2. 2020–24First five collectors

    Five original works sell into private collections — direct, unrepresented, one conversation at a time.

  3. 2025Art Basel

    Exhibits during Art Basel 2025 — the work's first appearance on the international fair circuit.

  4. 2026Marbella Art Fair, with Monat

    Enters gallery representation with Monat and shows at the Marbella Art Fair, opening July 30, 2026.

  5. 2026First Light — Gilded Edge Gallery

    Opens the online showroom he founded with his own inaugural collection. Four works, shown for the first time.

His inaugural collection, First Light, opens the Gilded Edge online showroom.

View the collection