Gaby Ortega began her career in traditional documentary filmmaking and theater, where she developed a focus on spatial storytelling—how bodies move and relate within a physical environment. Her transition to VR around 2016 coincided with the release of consumer headsets like the Oculus Rift. Recognizing that VR’s unique affordance (presence, or the feeling of "being there") could solve a problem in documentary film—the distance between subject and viewer—Ortega began experimenting with volumetric capture and 360° video.
Beyond her artistic output, Ortega is a vocal critic of "poverty porn" and exploitation in VR documentaries. She argues that because VR feels so real, creators have an elevated ethical duty. In a 2021 keynote at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), she stated: “When you place a viewer in someone’s trauma in 360°, you are not just showing pain—you are imposing it. We need consent protocols for immersive journalism.” gaby ortega vr
Her 2022 piece, "Frontera: A VR Memory" , tackled the U.S.-Mexico border using photogrammetry of actual desert locations mixed with animated family memories. It won the Grand Jury Prize for Immersive Storytelling at SXSW. Gaby Ortega began her career in traditional documentary