Latin America Professional Award 2022 3rd Place

Peru is going through a mining boom, especially in the provinces of Puno, Ayacucho and Cusco in the Andes, where large mining companies are working to extract different types of metals such as copper and gold. However, this activity contributes to global warming and thereby to the melting of the Quelccaya Ice Cap. The first to be affected are the people of the rural communities near the mining camps who find it increasingly impossible to continue farming raising livestock and preserving their mountains. “With these waters we irrigate our corn and potato crops. When there is no snowfall, life will end,” says Exaltacion Chuquichampi (58), who as a child used to play in the snow of the Quelccaya mountain in the community of Sallany. “Now there is little snowfall, what are we going to do when the snowfall ends? There will only be a black mountain,” adds Yovana (29), daughter of Exaltacion.

Ángela Ponce is a documentary photographer and photojournalist based in Peru. She focuses on long-term projects that approach Latin American social issues, political conflicts, disability rights and memory. During 2019, she was awarded; 2nd place in POY LATAM category Sports Series; Women Photograph and The Women’s Equality Center grant, among others. In 2017, she won the ICRC Humanitarian Visa d’Or (France). Currently she is a frequent contributor for The New York Times, Bloomberg and Reuters.