The World Press Photo Foundation is proud to announce the six selected talents from North and Central America in the fifth edition of the 6x6 Global Talent Program.
Nominations for under-recognized visual storytellers from the global region of North and Central America were made by our growing community of over 100 global 6x6 nominators.
With Lars Boering, Managing Director of the World Press Photo Foundation, as chair, the online selection committee comprised Juan Brenner, photographer and independent art director (Guatemala); Ana Casas Broda, photographer, editor and co-founder of Hydra + Fotografía (Spain / Mexico); Barbara Davidson, photographer (Canada); and Loup Langton, freelance photographer and editor (USA).
The six selected visual storytellers from North and Central America are:
On nominating Dylan Hausthor, Gihan Tubbeh (Peru), photographer, said:
“Dylan Hausthor’s ability to create meaning and tension between images, cohesion through ambiguity, and poetry through visual grammar captured my attention. I believe Dylan's capacity to build metaphors through his sequences, provoke opposite emotions for the viewer, dig deep into human contradictions, and create cohesive bodies of work (both aesthetically and in meaning), definitely shows a young talent that many would highly appreciate.”
On nominating Ian Willms, Søren Pagter (Denmark), photojournalism department head The Danish School of Media and Journalism, said:
“Ian Willms is a talented landscape photographer and he is able to show both the beauty of the land and how it is being destroyed. At the same time, he tells intimate stories about people. It is great to see a photographer who is both a personal storyteller, but who can also make us see and understand environmental issues.”
On nominating Mariceu Erthal García, Erika Larsen (USA), photographer, said:
“Mariceu Erthal García’s ability to search for ways to understand her stories and put herself into the world of the people she is trying to learn about is uncanny. Her work is sensitive, profound and unsettling.”
On nominating Nydia Blas, Jeanne Mercier (France), art consultant, critic and curator, said:
“Nydia Blas delicately weaves stories concerning circumstance, value, and power and uses her work to create a physical and allegorical space presented through a Black feminine lens. The result is an environment that is dependent upon the belief that in order to maintain resiliency, a magical outlook is necessary.”
On nominating Tomas Ayuso, Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo (Colombia), photographer, teacher and editor, said:
“Tomas Ayuso's work focuses on Latin American conflict as it relates to the drug war, forced displacement, and urban dispossession. In covering the different types of violence facing the region’s people, he persist to create a record of both continental struggles and local successes. By weaving intimate portraits into the greater narratives of the stories Ayuso makes, he strives to tell compassionate but unflinching looks into the peoples of the Americas.”
On nominating Yael Esteban Martínez Velázquez, Danielle Villasana (USA), photojournalist, said:
“Yael Martinez’s approach to documentary photography is bravely intimate and pushes the boundaries of traditional storytelling practices. For example, Martinez places himself in various photographs, which not only adds an incredibly emotional layer to his work, but also challenges the way we think about documentary photography.”
With four of the six global regions already announced, the 6x6 Global Talent Program’s first cycle will be completed in February 2019. The diverse work of the 6x6 talents will be showcased at the 11th Yangon Photo Festival from 18 February to 10 March 2019, as well as presented during Miami Photo Fest’s nightly multimedia presentations from 27 February - 3 March 2019. This follows the first exhibition of the 6x6 program at LUMIX Festival for Young Photojournalism in Germany, and exhibitions in Kuching, Malaysia and Maputo, Mozambique, earlier this year.
In addition to the exhibitions, the work of the six talents will also be published and shared on the World Press Photo Foundation’s platforms, including an individual feature on Witness, our online magazine, for each of the talents.
See the results of the African, European, and South American editions announced earlier this year, as well as the inaugural edition in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The 6x6 Program welcomes applications, from around the world, to become a global nominator. To apply to be a global nominator, and for all questions about the program, please contact 6x6@worldpressphoto.org
Header Image, from left to right, top to bottom: Ian Willms (© Steph Martyniuk); Nydia Blas (© Nydia Blas); Yael Esteban Martínez Velázquez (© Itzel Martínez); Tomas Ayuso © (Patrick MacLeod); Dylan Hausthor (© Dylan Hausthor); and Mariceu Erthal (© Mariceu Erthal).
Posted December 17 2018
