• POY Latam celebrates 12 years of recognizing excellence in documentary, journalistic and artistic photography in Ibero-America.
• The POY Latam 2023 jury had to evaluate 27,357 images from 1,388 visual creators from all the countries of Ibero-America who applied in 17 categories.
• A total of 42% of women photographers won the POY Latam awards, demonstrating the power of the female gaze in Ibero-America. The jury was composed of 10 women and seven men.
• The judging rounds in photography (classic and open categories), transmedia and photobooks took place in virtual and on-site format from May 25 to 28, and were broadcast live on the contest’s social networks.
• POY Latam 2023 awarded 88 works by 75 photographers from 13 countries.
• In the Transmedia category, the jurors evaluated 540 works and awarded six productions. The audiovisual project “Blood is a Seed” by Ecuadorian photographer Isadora Romero won first place.
• The seventh edition of POY Latam was made possible thanks to the support of: SolipsisArt Colectivo Fotográfico Ecuador, Donald W Reynolds Journalism Institute, Fundación Gabo, Global Exchange, Ethnic Media Services, Península 360 Press, Fábrica de Ideas and Fotógrafas Latinoamericanas.

Quito, May 31, 2023. Colombian Federico Ríos Escobar was selected as the Ibero-American Photographer of the Year in the POY Latam 2023, which in its seventh edition broadcast live the judging and selection of finalists from May 25 to 28 through the contest’s social networks.

Since 2011, Pictures of the Year Latam (POY Latam) has recognized and rewarded the work of journalists and photographic artists in Ibero-America. In its seventh edition, the contest received 27,357 images from 1,388 visual creators from all Ibero-American countries who applied in 17 categories.

Photographers Rodrigo Abd and Sarah Pabst, from Argentina; Ángela Ponce and Alessandro Cinque, from Peru; stood out in the Ibero-American Photographer of the Year category. Colombian photojournalist Federico Ríos also won first place in the Human Rights category, with a series of 10 photographs of migrants crossing the Darién Gap to reach the United States. Another of the prizes he won was in the Photobook category, with the essay “Verde” (Green), a collection of 10 years of photographs of the armed conflict in Colombia.

In the Everyday Life category (single photo) the winner was Guatemalan photojournalist Esteban Biba with an image entitled “Rezar”, taken in May 2021 during the eruption of the Pacaya volcano (Guatemala). The Mexican, Luis Antonio Rojas, won first place in Vida Cotidiana (essay) with a series on the journey of pain experienced by the families of the 43 students who disappeared at the hands of the army and organized crime in the state of Guerrero at the end of 2014.

Winners in other categories include: Mexico’s Felix Marquez (News-single photo) with an image of a Haitian girl being carried in the arms of a migrant as they cross the Rio Grande, and Peruvian photojournalist Aldair Mejia Lopez (News-series) with images on the demonstrations and police repression in Lima and other cities following the departure of former President, Pedro Castillo. Peruvian photographer Alejandra Elías won first place in the Portrait category with a series of photos on the families of those killed and injured during the recent social protests in Peru, and their struggle to ensure that their cases are not forgotten.

In the Sports category, the series “Cardumen de mujeres”, by Peruvian photojournalist Ana Elisa Sotelo, won first place. In the category Photojournalists of the World, the jury decided to award first place to the Spanish photographer Manu Brabo, who narrates, through the series “Black Butterflies”, the violence of the war in Ukraine against civilian targets.

Baroque and the hybridization of realities stood out in the Nuestra Mirada category with the winning essays by photographers: Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo (Colombia), Sofía López (Argentina), Andrea Hernández Briceño (Venezuela), Cyro Almeida e Mestre Júlio Santos (Brazil), Cesar Rodríguez (Mexico) and the Colectivo Mujeres Mirando (Ecuador).

A photographic series on the reality of displaced families, the search for those who disappeared in the Colombian conflict and the eternal violence faced by the inhabitants of rural Latin America, by photojournalist Andrés Cardona, was awarded in the Long-Term Projects category.

The Carolina Hidalgo Vivar Environment Award went to Gabriela Portilho (Brazil), Marilene Ribeiro (Brazil), Ángela Ponce (Peru), Pablo Albarenga (Uruguay) Wayra (Bolivia) and Ruido Photo (Spain). Valuable photographic works on the disappearance and massive death of bees in the South American giant, the melting of the Quelccaya ice cap, the largest tropical snow-capped mountain in the world located in Cuzco-Peru, and the conflicts between illegal mining and Brazilian aboriginal communities.

The work of Mexican photographer Silvana Flores was also awarded in the Identity and Gender category with a story about the trans grandmothers of the LGBTTTIQ+ movement. In New Formats, category Resignifying the Archives, Brazilian photographer Marina Feldhues won first place with an essay reflecting on urban violence against black bodies.

This year, POY Latam made important changes, with the advice of its Advisory Council, in response to a society in permanent transformation. The open categories or new formats made it possible to listen to a multiplicity of voices and stories that reflect an intercultural, hybrid, kaleidoscopic and diverse Iberoamerica.

The jury for the classic categories was made up of: Luján Agusti, Argentine visual storyteller; Daniel Caselli, Uruguayan photojournalist; Verónica Sanchis, Venezuelan photographer and editor; Olmo Calvo Rodríguez, Spanish photojournalist; Rosely Nakagawa, Brazilian editor; and Gael Almeida, Executive Director for Latin America at National Geographic Society. In the open categories, the jurors were: Maíra Gamarra, Brazilian photographer, curator and cultural manager; Nelson Garrido, Venezuelan visual artist; Ângela Berlinde, Portuguese artist and curator; Koral Carballo, Afro-Mexican photojournalist; Jorge Panchoaga, Colombian photodocumentalist; and Tiago Santana, Brazilian photographer and editor.

In the photobooks category, 84 publications were evaluated by the curators. The jury was made up of: Pablo Corral Vega, director and founder of POY Latam; Yinna Higuera, president of the Association of Ecuadorian Photographers and director at Catarsis Editorial; Julieta Escardó, Argentine photographer and editor; Yolanda Escobar Jiménez, Mexican photo-documentary filmmaker; and Francisco Valdivieso, founder and manager of Imprenta Mariscal.

POY Latam is working to become a non-profit foundation and to promote, beyond the contest, a permanent educational agenda and a continuous presence in networks. For the third edition, POYLatam selected SolipsisArt, a photographic collective from Ecuador, as its communication partner.