Tragik - 2025 Playbook Photo Competition Winner Spotlight

When everyday gestures become quietly extraordinary. Award-winning photographer and creative director Florencia Carcagno (Tragik) captures queer and historically overlooked communities in their most vulnerable states. Her portfolio, which won Second Place in the 2025 Playbook Photo Competition, explores intimacy as both a camouflage and revelation through scenes of queer love, chosen family, and deep-rooted connection, offering an exploration of nontraditional beauty that challenges mainstream norms. Through this work, viewers are invited to linger with the subtle power, intimacy, and depth of these communities—hidden in plain sight, yet shining with undeniable presence.

Meet Tragik

Now based in the Bay Area, Florencia Carcagno, professionally known as Tragik, is a multidisciplinary creative director whose work celebrates community, identity, and storytelling in its most authentic forms. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she grew up in a household steeped in both imagination and intellect. Her mother, whom she refers to as a “radical, witchy socialist,” and her father, “a nuclear engineer with a sharp, analytical mind,” offered her a lens into two distinct ways of seeing the world. Many of those early family moments were preserved on film, and today, Tragik still uses the same Canon AE-1 to capture memories of her own kids.

“Analog has always been sacred to me; the imperfections, the anticipation, the joy of being in the moment rather than perfecting it.”

Her first encounter with a darkroom came through a nonprofit program. That’s when she began photographing her neighbours—many of whom wanted portraits to send to their loved ones in prison. At the same time, she was sneaking into library computer labs, captivated by dial-up internet and the possibilities of early online communities.

“I taught myself HTML and Java, built blogging sites, and put out Hispanik.com as a way to reclaim Latinx identity online. Photography, writing, and design became my toolkit for storytelling—especially for marginalized voices.”

By the early 2010s, Los Angeles became her creative playground. She worked with major labels, toured globally with artists like her close friend Kreayshawn, and even formed a short-lived punk band with Grimes.

“I shot Kali Uchis’ first music video and experimented across photography, creative direction, film, and fashion. That era was electric—YouTube was exploding, new voices were breaking through, and I found myself drawn to telling stories for communities I care about most: BIPOC and queer folks.”

Her career has since moved fluidly across mediums and industries—from grassroots creative work to shaping media at Grindr, helping build FOLX Health from scratch, and now leading creative in fintech. At every step, she has carried her commitment to amplifying voices too often silenced.

“This corporate chapter feels like a bridge; I see what’s next as creating space and access for other creatives who, like me, had too many doors closed. I’m committed to building those self-made tables where our communities can thrive.”

For Tragik, creativity has never been linear—it is cyclical, layered, and deeply personal.

“I’ve always enjoyed bringing a piece of my personal, artistic world into more sterile corporate spaces as a reminder that creativity doesn’t have to conform. My journey as an artist has never felt linear; it’s more fluid, almost like all moments exist at once, constantly folding into each other.”

About Tragik’s Portfolio

Florencia’s award winning portfolio celebrates “queer and historically overlooked communities in their most candid, vulnerable states,” capturing moments that feel honest, raw, and deeply human. Instead of polished or staged portraits, her work highlights the everyday magic of connection — a glance between friends, laughter that fills a room, the quiet strength of someone simply existing as themselves.

At its core, her photography challenges the narrow definitions of beauty often upheld in mainstream culture. By focusing on queer love, chosen families, and the resilience of marginalized communities, Florencia reveals beauty in places many overlook. Her images remind us that tenderness, joy, and intimacy are powerful forms of resistance.

Through this work, Florencia invites viewers to slow down and notice the small but profound details that speak to love, belonging, and strength. These stories might be hidden in plain sight, but under her lens, they shine with a presence that feels both familiar and extraordinary.

What does your creative process look like? How do you get inspired, and when do you create your best work?

For Tragik, the creative process has never been fixed: it’s evolved over time from something driven purely by instinct into a practice grounded in context, research, and collaboration.

“My creative process has evolved from instinct and emotion into something more grounded; anchored in context, insight, and research. I still trust my feelings, but I’ve learned how much richer the work becomes when paired with history, data, and collaboration.”

That blend of intuition and structure is fueled by a willingness to learn from others, no matter their stage in the journey. Recently, she joined an Art Direction 101 class taught by her colleague, Brazilian art director Du Nieto. The exchange of ideas reminded her that humility and listening have always been central to how she works.

When it comes to her best work, Tragik finds it in two places: moments of inspiration and moments of challenge. Roadblocks, she says, often open the door to breakthroughs.

“Roadblocks push me to pause, step back, and approach things from a new angle, and that’s usually when something unexpected and beautiful emerges.”

Her inspirations are as much political as they are artistic. Collectives like Gran Fury, born out of ACT UP/NY during the height of the AIDS crisis, models how bold, unapologetic storytelling could spark cultural change.

“Their Kissing Doesn’t Kill campaign revealed just how powerful and disruptive imagery can be. That kind of radical beauty in the face of bigotry still fuels me today.”

It’s the same spirit she carried into her later work at FOLX Health, where she helped lead queer and trans visibility campaigns that took over Times Square and New York City’s W4th Street station — a contemporary echo of that activist lineage.

What inspired your portfolio submission for Hidden in Plain Sight? What themes are you drawn to as an artist?

For Tragik, the contest theme felt almost tailor-made.

“Queer and trans people are masters of hiding in plain sight,” she explains. “We know how to exist between worlds, and we also know how to shine brilliantly when we feel safe.”

Her submission reflects this duality, centering queer love, chosen family, and the resilience that shows up in everyday moments. Rather than glamorized portraits, she chose to highlight the joy, laughter, and intimacy that define her communities. “Those are the stories I feel most called to tell,” she says, stories that reveal nontraditional beauty, vulnerability, and strength with honesty and tenderness.

The submission also came at a turning point in her personal life. Having sold most of her gear to prepare for the birth of her second daughter, the contest became an opportunity to reinvest in her practice. Her first purchase back was a Contax T3, and she’s now saving toward a mirrorless and a Mamiya. As she puts it: “Equipment comes and goes, but the skill and vision remain.”

What has your experience been like with Playbook and how has it helped you on your creative journey?

Tragik has been a Playbook user since its earliest days. She first brought it into her work at FOLX Health, where the team needed a DAM system. What stood out was how different it felt compared to traditional organizational tools. *“*I was struck by how intuitive and inspiring it felt — something rare for asset management,” she recalls.

Since then, she’s continued to use Playbook both personally and professionally, recommending it to clients and integrating it into teams she’s led. For her, the value goes beyond organization:

“It transforms something often tedious, asset management, into a creative experience in itself. That shift in energy has been huge for how I stay organized and inspired.”

There’s something powerful about seeing the beauty, resilience, and love that often goes unnoticed. Through Hidden in Plain Sight, Tragik invites us into communities that are vibrant, intimate, and unapologetically themselves.

👉 Want to keep exploring? Check out more of Tragik’s storytelling on her Playbook page! Her work doesn’t just capture images—it gives voice to stories that deserve to be seen, celebrated, and shared.