Artist Spotlight: Cal Campos
- Mikaela Brewer
- May 2
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 7
by Mikaela Brewer for The 44 North
Media Producer, Photographer
Cal Campos (they/them) is a self-employed Media Producer and Inclusivity Public Speaker from Tkaronto (Toronto), Ontario. They've been speaking about their story as a Filipinx, Queer, Transgender, Non-binary person for over a decade and are actively creating Braver spaces for marginalized communities in storytelling.
Website: Calvin Campos
Instagram: cal (they/them) (@calvin.campos) • Instagram photos and videos
Published photos for Queer Skate Toronto x Elle Canada
Cal in the Press: In the Press — Calvin Campos
“I met some really amazing people this year. I also lost amazing people this year. I’m finding myself in a place of grief. But I will say: I lost people because I know myself better now. I think that’s a testament to my growth.”
Some people just feel safe—they see you because they’ve spent intentional time seeing themselves. When I walked into the W Toronto a few weeks ago for a writing workshop with Poesy, my social anxiety itself was sweating. When I realized I was the first one there (a bit early, travelling in from Barrie), I nearly panicked as I headed for the couches in the far corner of the beautifully decorated room.
And then someone came over, gently, to introduce themselves; the photographer for the event.
They offered an honest, vulnerable smile that had clearly been brave before, and would help me be brave this evening. My body’s somatic response to anxiety ran its course, but I was no longer afraid. This is what a safe person does—they hold your humanness, your loneliness, and your hiding places with sensitivity and care, without abandoning discomfort or themselves. Please, meet Cal Campos (they/them).
They offered an honest, vulnerable smile that had clearly been brave before, and would help me be brave this evening. My body’s somatic response to anxiety ran its course, but I was no longer afraid. This is what a safe person does—they hold your humanness, your loneliness, and your hiding places with sensitivity and care, without abandoning discomfort or themselves. Please, meet Cal Campos (they/them).
A Media Producer and Inclusivity Public Speaker, Cal is also a brilliant photographer—an artist in seeing people through the lens of both their empathetic camera and their kind, curious heart. After meeting Cal, even though cameras usually amplify my anxiety, I didn’t hide the rest of the evening.
In an article interview, Embracing Risk with Bold Journey, Cal says that for them, “Being Alive is centered in some values: calculated risk, empathy, and kindness.”
From Tkaronto (Toronto), Ontario, Cal has been sharing their story as a Filipinx, Queer, Transgender, Non-binary person for over a decade, prioritizing uplifting the stories of marginalized communities (e.g. 2SLGBTQIA+, PGM/BIPOC). Cal is steadfast in their values, and believes that feeling less alone—closer to our truest selves—comes from crafting space to be with the heartbreak innate to human lives. To have been heartbroken is to have loved and been loved. Love allows grief and joy to coexist. It risks heartbreak. And I see these threads in the photos Cal chose to share because time isn’t linear, it’s cyclical: sunbathed chairs both empty and full; a shoreline both scraped and blanketed by waves; a lighthouse both a beacon and lonely; two blue windows unbearably far apart yet of the same home; a thin gray sky offered a vibrant green bed to rest; and the road ahead, blurred but painted with multi-directional guides.
1) In the passenger seat driving home from Peggy’s Cove. Accessibility text: a curved road from the passenger seat of a car, surrounded by trees and a gray sky. 2) Watching the houses pass driving home from Peggy’s Cove. Accessibility text: a slightly blurry view of a grassy boulevard beneath a row of houses. 3) Peggy’s Cove from inside Sou’Wester Gift & Restaurant. Accessibility text: a restaurant table and chairs in front of a window, with a view of a blue-panelled house among others in the distance. 4) Peggy’s Cove’s lighthouse from Sou’Wester Gift & Restaurant. Accessibility text: a lighthouse on the rocky shore, from a window decorated with hanging fish made of beads and shells. 5) Chairs sunbathing, Peggy’s Cove. Accessibility text: four Muskoka chairs—white, blue, teal, and red—sitting on a grassy hill where a dirt path leads to them. 6) Shoreline, Peggy’s Cove. Accessibility text: a rocky shoreline where houses and a church are perched.
Cal embodies this, also, speaking about their first binder as life-saving armor and love (urBasics), how the practice of being yourself is joyful and celebratory (On Canada Project), and in their heartfelt YouTube video, Me at 26:
“I met some really amazing people this year. I also lost amazing people this year. I’m finding myself in a place of grief. But I will say: I lost people because I know myself better now. I think that’s a testament to my growth.”
In this video, Cal also shared a quote from Cole Arthur Riley, which is, I believe, uncoincidentally a lesson that I’ve needed to learn over the past few years. Cal and I are both Cole Arthur Riley fans, so this felt fitting to reshare here:
“Don’t demand somebody else’s exhaustion because you’re exhausted. We have to want care and rest for others as much as we want care and rest for ourselves. Refuse to welcome people into the same chains that hold you. We get free together.”
—Cole Arthur Riley
The photos Cal shared with us capture views from Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, in the spring of 2024. They hope these will bring some sun and peaceful East Coast energy to everyone reading. Please enjoy. :)
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