A visual storyteller who is still cooking in the darkroom.
Anderson Zaca is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker whose work explores culture, identity, and community. For over two decades, he has built a practice that moves between global commercial production and his own artistic work. He holds degrees in photography and film production and has exhibited in the USA and internationally, with numerous solo and group exhibitions.
His first book, Block Party: NYC Soul of Summer, captures the energy and significance of New York City’s block parties across race and class, sharing regional pride from different neighborhoods. The project evolved into an extensive interactive exhibition at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the Block Party Short Film Series for Samsung 360. Partnering with Fujifilm Instax over the last decade, his portrait collaboration further documents the diversity of Brooklyn through sustained, community-based engagement; the images serve as an archive of Brooklyn’s diversity and a New York City time capsule.
His second book, Fire Island Invasion: Day of Independence, is the result of nearly two decades of documenting the Invasion of the Pines on New York’s Fire Island. Comprising more than three thousand images shot on black-and-white medium format film, the work stands as both an archive and a tribute, tracing the visual language of drag and the enduring legacy of queer celebration, resistance, and performance.
Zaca has produced and directed several short films and has also created four documentary series across independent, branded, and broadcast contexts. He directed For the Love of Dance, a New York City–based series exploring dance communities across the city. One of Anderson’s favorite assignments was over a three year period traveling internationally with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, documenting his career and working as creative director for his branded content for campaigns with Nike, Renault, Facebook. and more.
The immense public interest of Mr. Zaca’s Block Party book paved the way for Samsung 360 to sponsor the Block Party Short Film Series, based on his one his one decade documentation of NYC block parties in the five boroughs. Most recently, he created, wrote, directed, produced, and co-hosted The Darkroom MCs, a docuseries spotlighting Black and Brown photographers working in the darkroom. The series premiered in June 2025 on PBS ALL ARTS TV via Apple TV, Roku, and YouTube,
His other commercial work includes a multi-year photographic campaign for Sony across Central, North, and South America, and his broader client portfolio includes Spotify, Budweiser, Neiman Marcus, Rolling Stone, Samsung, and Target to name a few. He filmed and directed a music video for musician Will Knox, which was nominated for an Independent Music Award in 2012 and received runner-up honors. In 2018, he was named Best Fashion Photographer by the Visual Arts Press Awards.
Since 2010, Zaca has been developing a feature documentary, Carnavalescos, examining the creative and technical forces behind Brazilian Carnaval. The film follows the year-round work of samba school communities, foregrounding the carnavalescos as the central artistic figure shaping one of the largest cultural productions in the world.
He is developing other narrative and documentary projects, including a feature film set at an NYC block party; a children’s book and short film exploring the interconnectedness of kite cultures in India and Brazil; and a documentary on surfing as a form of escape within dense urban environments in Tokyo, New York City, and São Paulo.
Zaca teaches photography, filmmaking, media production, and journalism in NYC public schools and has designed and led Creative Aging programs across senior centers in Brooklyn, using photography, podcasting, and storytelling to help older adults document and share their lived experiences while building connection and digital literacy.