Hi there! I’m Elio Rivero, a Graphic Designer turned Engineering Manager, who relocated from Argentina to beautiful Hamburg, Germany, looking for new horizons. I formerly worked at Automattic giving everyone on the Internet a voice to tell their own story.
My story is about curiosity, movement, and finding wonder in everyday moments. I enjoy running trails, traveling and exploring new places, and chasing the light playing through my camera lens. Photography is my way of pausing the world and saying yes! to a moment worth capturing. Trail running and hiking are my ways of moving through our world’s beautiful nature.
I’m an avid traveler and have been blessed to travel through many places in South and Central America, North America, and Europe. From Argentina to Canada, from Spain to Montenegro. Each place left me with new stories, new perspectives, and many new photos.
You can see some of the photos I made here and also follow me on Instagram.
It wasn’t always like this
But before I was crossing the Alps or plunging into the cold waters of the Elbe in the middle of winter, I lived in a different kind of movement: the fast, ever-changing world of the WordPress community.
I co-founded the first WordPress community in Argentina, started a local meetup in Córdoba, and found myself speaking at WordCamps in countries I had never imagined I’d visit, like USA, Germany, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Argentina. In 2017, I stood as Master of Ceremony at WordCamp US 2018 in Nashville. In 2019, I spoke at WordCamp Europe in Berlin. From Vienna to New York to Basel, I joined countless WordCamps speaking, volunteering, or just learning with others.
Those years shaped me. They sharpened my creativity, widened my perspective, and gave me lifelong friendships. As fulfilling as that world was, I realized something was missing.
What I found
Being in Hamburg led me to be intimately in touch with nature. From visiting places that are otherworldly, like Helgoland, to read the changing seasons, like how the blooming of the Heide in the south of Hamburg signals the end of the summer. Or jumping into the Elbe in winter, with the Eisbademeisters, collecting donations for people living in the streets and enduring the cold.
At some point, I wanted to feel more. That’s when I started running trails, letting my feet carry me through forests and mountains. And of course, taking my camera along to capture, not only the light, but also the movement, the color, the vibrance of nature.
My life is still a work in progress. I want to think that I live by a principle:
If you care about something, you’re expected to challenge it.
I care about my life and keeping in touch with nature. That’s why I challenge myself, like crossing the Alps over seven days, from Germany through Austria to Italy, covering more than 120 kilometers, or signing up for the UTMB MountainMan in Reit im Winkl, a small Bavarian town bordering Austria.
These moments of movement, challenge, and also pause, are what define me. They’re what remind me that life isn’t a finished story. It’s an ongoing journey.