David Schonauer
Slate Wednesday December 2, 2015
Who is Dominican? What do Dominicans look like? Those questions have impacted hundreds of thousands of lives since the Dominican government started threatening to deport undocumented migrant
workers—the majority of them Haitian, notes Slate. Colombian-American photographer Antonio Pulgarin, a Latin American Fotografia 4 winner and a past LAF winner, makes a forceful point with his series “Los Banilejos,” a
celebration of diverse identity in the Dominican town of Bani, his stepfather’s home. Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday December 2, 2015
"I use color in my work as a quintessential tie and a means to embrace unity. I feel that this comes naturally because of my Latin American roots and American upbringing," says Diego Martinez-Conde,
one of the winners of the Latin American Fotografia 4 competition. Martinez-Conde's use of color is on display in his winning image "Aircooled Sunday," taken at La Villa Olimpica de … Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday November 25, 2015
What is Vladimir Putin up to in Latin America? That question was at the center of a probing story in Americas Quarterly magazine, in response to recent moves by the Russian president to increase
diplomatic and trade activities in the region. The magazine's art director, Donald Partyka, turned to New York City-based illustrator Wesley Bedrosian to create a compelling piece of art for the … Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday October 28, 2015
After enlisting in the US Army and serving in Iraq, Hector Rene Membreno-Canales returned home and attended the School of Visual Arts in New York - an experience, he says, that had a profound impact
on his creative development. "I met other veterans with shared military experiences who were also studying art," he says. Within this community, he created a series of photographic still-life … Read the full Story >>
Langly Field Notes Wednesday October 14, 2015
Photographer Jaime Permuth’s much-lauded series (and book)
“Yonkeros” looks at the junk yards of Willets Point, a small enclave in the New York City borough of Queens. Permuth captured the everyday lives of the people who worked in the junk yards
before the area began to be transformed in 2012. These workers are known as Yonkeros, a term born from the English word junk and adapted into Spanish by the immigrants living in Willets Point.
Recently, Permuth, who was born in Guatemala and is a past winner of the Latin American Fotografia contest, talked about the series with the Langly Field Notes blog of Langly Camera Bags. Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday October 14, 2015
Photographer Roberto Guerra, who is based in Quito, Ecuador, has covered a variety of news stories for publications like the Wall Street Journal, Le Monde,, NPR and the BBC. He also collaborates with
his wife, journalist Ruxandra Guidi, producing stories for print, radio, and the web under the name Fonografia Collective. "And then, of course, there is my project about my daughter Camila," he … Read the full Story >>
Visa Pour l'Image Wednesday October 7, 2015
Panos Pictures photographer Lianne Milton is the recipient of the first photography prize awarded by the Yves Rocher Foundation
- Institut de France in partnership with the Visa Pour l’Image photojournalism festival. The €8,000 (about $9,000) award goes to a photographer working on issues in the area of the
environment, relationships between humans and the earth, and challenges for sustainable development. Milton, a past winner of the Latin American Fotografia competition, receives the award for her
project on a semi-arid region of northeast Brazil. Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday October 7, 2015
The average lifespan of Nicaraguan sugarcane harvesters is 49. At the root of the early deaths, notes VII photographer Ed Kashi, is Chronc Kidney Disease, an affliction of unknown causes that has
resulted in the death or sickness of some 10,000 sugarcane workers over the past decade. Kashi has spent nearly three years on the project, producing photo and video series for non-profit
organizations … Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday September 30, 2015
"When looking at Brasilia, you have to take into account not only the visuals, but the story behind the city and the politics that made an entire city appear in the Brazilian countryside," says New
York City-based photographer Andrew Prokos. In 2012, Prokos traveled to Brasilia to see and photograph the most famous and lesser known sights of the utopian city designed by famed … Read the full Story >>
Pro Photo Daily Wednesday September 23, 2015
Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, suffers from some of the country’s highest death rates among women in childbirth. The cause: not enough doctors, nurses and medically trained and
equipped midwives to help deliver babies. Last fall and winter, as aid groups worked to bring help to Chiapas, photographer Janet Jarman, a past
winner of the Latin American Fotografia competition, traveled through the region documenting the issue. A video she created was featured at the New York Times last month, and she recently received a
MacArthur Foundation documentary film grant to expand the project. “I always feel that interesting stories
can be told where traditional and modern cultures meet,” she says. Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday September 23, 2015
The passion play of Mexico City's Iztapalapa district, held every year during Holy Week, is one of the biggest and most famous in the country. "This event is both a ceremony and folk festival
unresponsive to a sacred narrative, nor a traditional theatre. It is an expression of multiple contributions that merge into a particular syncretism," says Mexico City-based photographer Juan Carlos
Lelo de … Read the full Story >>
theguardian Wednesday September 16, 2015
You can also get a peek at a selection of winning images from the Latin American Fotografia 4 competition at the Guardian online. Among the work featured at the newspaper’s website is
photography from James Rodriguez, who has been covering the consequences of violence in Guatemala; photographer Oscar Durand’s work from Peru; Giles Clarke’s work from Haiti; and
Jillian Edelstein’s moving portraits of HIV-positive Colombians who are being aided by an NGO dedicated to alleviating poverty. Read the full Story >>
Flipboard Wednesday September 16, 2015
Readers of the weekly Dispatches From Latin American newsletter will want to check out our archive at Flipboard, the online platform that allows you to view content in a magazine-like format.
You’ll find all of the stories we feature in one place, including coverage of political and social photo stories from Central America, photography from Cuba as it undergoes historic changes, and
portfolios from Brazil as it prepares for the 2016 Olympic Games. You’ll also find close-ups of the winners of the Latin American Fotografia and Latin American Ilustracion competitions. Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday September 16, 2015
The work of Peru-born, New York City based illustrator Ronny Barrera was selected for the Latin American Ilustracion 1 and 2 competitions, and he was named a winner of LAI 3 as well. Barrera's latest
winning work, a portrait of his nephew titled simply "Boy," began as a drawing and later developed into an illustration. "He has multi-cultural heritage, and I wanted to express … Read the full Story >>
Vimeo Wednesday September 9, 2015
Brazilian photographer Luiz Maximiano, a multi-time winner of the Latin American Fotografia competition, has completed a short film called The Sky
Over Your Shoulders, which premiered recently at the HollyShorts Film Festival in Los Angeles. See the trailer now at Vimeo. The
15-minute narrative thriller, says Maximiano, is “about a guy who gets lost while driving his car through an isolated dirty road in the middle of nowhere.” The strange situations he runs
into cause him to wonder if he is in an alternate universe. Shooting was done in the rural landscape of southern Brazil in March. The film’s director of photography was another LAF winner,
Brazilian photographer Gabriel Rinaldi. Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday September 9, 2015
In 2014, Mexico's Picnic magazine sponsored a group exhibition of work by the country's 30 best illustrators. Among them was Javier Medellin Puyou, a.k.a. Jilipollo, "They gave the artists the freedom
to work around any theme they wanted," he says. "The only requirement was that the artwork had to be done in just two colors: chocolate brown and lime green." Medellin's illustration, later named … Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday September 2, 2015
Based in Spain, illustrator Andrea Ceballos Garca grew up hearing stories from her grandmother, who was born in Mexico City in 1923. Cebellos developed a deep desire to personally know the land of her
grandmother's birth, and her dream came true, thanks to a university scholarship that allowed her to live in Merida, Yucatan, for eight months in 2012 and 2013. Her Latin American … Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday August 26, 2015
Based in the UK, freelance illustrator Donough O'Malley has worked for a long list of international clients, including the BBC, Jameson's Whiskey, Random House, Runner's World magazine and Sony. And
for the past four years he has been creating covers for Wine Republic magazine in Argentina, which focuses on tourism in the country's wine-making regions. One of those covers -- about wine tours of … Read the full Story >>
Facebook Wednesday August 19, 2015
On view through August 31 as part of the Fotógrafos em Ouro Preto festival in the historic city of Ouro Preto,
Brazil, is an exhibition of work from the Latin American Fotografía 2 and Latin American Fotografía 3 contests; the images in the show were also selected for the traveling “Los
Diez” exhibition series sponsored by Epson. Place: Galeria de Arte do Grêmio Literário Tristão Ataíde, Rua Paraná, 136, Centro, Ouro Preto. Go here to view pictures from the festival and the gallery. Read the full Story >>
By David Schonauer Wednesday August 19, 2015
When Sao Paulo, Brazil-based photographer Tomas Arthuzzi was assigned to shoot a stack of healthy foods for Superinteressante magazine, he wasn't sure how to do it. But he immediately said he could
get the job done, and then started thinking about how to accomplish the feat. The resulting image, which ran in a special issue of the magazine, was later named a winner of … Read the full Story >>
