During his time at Appalachian State University, Juan Diego fell in love with the outdoors and found his passion for rock climbing. After graduating, he spent half a decade traveling around the world on climbing expeditions from northern Myanmar to the snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera Blanca in the Peruvian Andes. During his travels, he picked up a camera and began to document the people, cultures, and places where his explorations led him. After a six-month solo trip by land from Colombia to Chile in 2014, he decided to pursue a career as an adventure and documentary photographer. He is currently based between Asheville, North Carolina, and Colombia, working as a freelance photographer while contributing to publications including The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, WIRED, Vogue, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and others. Since 2021, Juan Diego has been working on a multimedia anthropological study in the Colombian Amazon, documenting two indigenous communities fighting to protect their territory and ancestral traditions. Fluent in Spanish, he has led Putney and National Geographic Student Travel programs in Hawaii, Namibia, and Ecuador & the Galápagos.