Visitors at the opening night of the Sony World Photography Awards 2022 exhibition at artexarte, Argentina
A bespoke edition of the Sony World Photography Awards takes over the Fundación Luz y Alfonso Castillo ArtexArte in Buenos Aires this month. Curated with the audience in mind, work from this year’s Latin America Professional Award and Latin America National Awards are two main focuses of the display, bringing photographers from the region together to enrich the creative community and nurture local talent. To celebrate the excellent work on show, we bring you our exhibition highlights and reactions from this year’s winners, Sony and the World Photography Organisation.
Gastón Deleau is Founder and Director of FOLA, a space dedicated to photography located at the heart of Buenos Aires, and 2021 Open and Youth competition judge, gives a welcome speech at the opening night
During the opening night, photographers, press, representatives from Sony, and special guests from across the region came together to enjoy and find inspiration in the 2022 award-winning photographs. With the exhibition space buzzing with creative conversations, guests were able to connect and learn from their peers in the industry.
Speaking about the show and Sony’s commitment to the Awards, Angelo Marconi, Regional Marketing Manager for Sony's Digital Image category, says: ‘At Sony we’re excited to bring this year's exhibition to Argentina, where we see significant growth in the number of participants and enthusiasts of the Sony World Photography Awards. The winning entries are of exceptional works of local and global scope, which confirms our commitment to continue supporting, after more than 15 years of alliance, this enormous competition, of which Latin America plays an important part. As in all this time, we recommend all photography lovers to participate in the free contest, entering photos taken with any camera.’
A highlight to exhibition is the ten photo projects recognised in this year’s Latin America Professional Award. Particular series that caught the attention of visitors at the opening night included Irina Werning’s series La Promesa, which looks at one girl’s vow to not cut her hair during lockdown while unpacking a deeper story linked to Latin America’s indigenous roots and belief that hair is sacred.
Alongside Irina’s charming and quirky photographs is For the Glory and the Pain (Por la Gloria y el Dolor) by Jesús Arvizu. The striking monochrome series documenting Mexican wrestlers was awarded second place in the Latin America Professional Award.
Speaking about his win, Jesús says: ‘It’s a great honor to be able to share my work and I am very grateful for the opportunity. I was very excited to see the message when the World Photography Organisation shared the news with me. It was a moment full of joy and nerves. I am so grateful and excited for this award.’
Alejandra Aragón’s series I Came To La Pinta Because They Told Me My Father Lived Here, given first place in this year’s Latin America Professional Award, is another project not to be missed. A personal quest to connect with her own family roots through her creativity, Alejandra’s series sees a range of experimental techniques and was inspired by an opening sentence of the emblematic Mexican novel Pedro Páramo. Stay tuned as we’ll be sharing an interview with Alejandra over the next few weeks.
Visitors enjoy Alejandra Aragón’s I Came To La Pinta Because They Told Me My Father Lived Here, the 2022 Latin America Professional Award winning series
Marketing Director at World Photography Organisation Faustine Pagés says: ‘This exhibition really shows the best of photography in Latin America today. When viewing the work here, printed en masse, it’s a powerful reminder on how rich and diverse in subject matter, style and approach entries to the Award are. I’m always struck my the strength of the stories. It’s so wonderful to have this work shown here in Argentina.’
As visitors travel through the exhibition they will come across the winning photographs from the Latin America National Awards. A new initiative for 2022, the programme brings together the region’s great photographers by celebrating their striking single images alongside one another. Bernardo del Cristo won first place for his powerful image of a diver jumping from a 10-metre platform.
‘Winning an award at the Sony World Photography Awards is an honor and very important as a photographer because it is a great recognition of my work and it will allow me to have greater visibility nationally and globally,' says Bernardo. 'I am very happy to have achieved first place in the Latin America National Award, in one of the most important photography contests in the world.’ His work is shown alongside Argentinan photographer Gonzalo Santile’s beautiful landscape showcasing the nighttime sky, Peruvian photographer Pedro Jarque Krebs’ wildlife portrait and the six shortlisted photographers.
The exhibition closes 22 October, 2022. More details can be found here.
