Paola Katherine Rodríguez (b. 1989) is a Dominican-American visual storyteller that examines identity and belonging, social justice, grief and loss, empowerment, healing and transformation through analogue photography and interdisciplinary and community-based work. Her work consists of portraiture, documentary photography, and street photography. She also experiments with multiple-exposure self-portraiture and photocollages. 

Paola Katherine has worked on two series:

Broken Free raises awareness of victimization while encouraging survivors to break the silence in order to end the violence.

In Transit documents the interaction between public transportation users and their spaces / environment, with emphasis on their sense of awareness—or lack thereof.​

and is currently working on:

Spark of my Life – a mixed-media memoir of life partner, music producer and writer Juan Alexander Caraballo (1979-2021), a renowned Miami DJ who was better known as Jonnie Sparko. 

In 2025, an iteration of this work was on view as a solo exhibition titled Love Never Dies at IPC ArtSpace in Miami, Florida.

Paola Katherine is also the co-founder of the monthly photography & community building event #Photowalk305. Since 2019, she has been facilitating a space for photographers to explore and exchange knowledge and experience with one another, while building a solid photography community here in Miami. 

Paola has exhibited work at Newspace Center for Photography, RedLine Contemporary Art Center, FIU Miami Beach Urban Studios, FIU Graham Center Art Gallery, Vizcaya, Little Haiti Cultural Complex, IPC ArtSpace, and has been a part of group shows such as 9 Topics TRIAD at Arthill Gallery in London, UK and The Fifth Annual Exposure Award at Musée du Louvre in Paris, France, and others. 

In 2026, #Photowalk305 won the Miami New Times Best of Miami best walking tour of 2026.

In 2025, her photography for the 2024 Goombay Festival in Coconut Grove was inducted into the Library of Congress.  

In 2015, her project Broken Free was a finalist for FEAST Miami. 

She was a featured artist at the Take Back the Night program at FIU for two consecutive years. She was awarded a scholarship at the 2014 FIU Thesis I Fall Review, for her series Broken Free.

She has been interviewed and featured on Artistíco RD, VoyageMIA, WokeWednesdays, She Shoots Film, TimeOut Miami, and FIU CARTA News.

Paola Katherine received a BA and a BFA from Florida International University in 2014 and 2015, respectively. 

Under the name PaoPaoKat, she is an up-and-coming house music DJ who is bringing back the underground deep house and tech house sounds from the 2010s and before, while continuing the legacy of her late partner, DJ Jonnie Sparko. She made her debut at Kill Your Idol during Miami Music Week in March 2026, and has since played at venues such as LunaSol Lounge and M2 Miami.

Aside from her creative practice and community engagement projects, Paola serves as the gallery coordinator and executive assistant of Green Space Miami and the Green Family Foundation, sings and performs with Miami Sound Choir, supports the local electronic and alternative music scene, makes photocollages and paintings, advocates for a plant-based and holistic lifestyle, and practices and teaches hatha yoga under her 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher designation.

Paola Katherine is based in Miami Beach, for the time being.