Each year NACLA invites readers to submit images they've snapped themselves that best encapsulate the theme in one or two of our issues. The next photo contest will be held in Summer 2013. The topic: Post-Chavez Venezuela. The deadline is May 1st, 2013.
FALL 2012
The winner of our Fall 2012 photo contest is Asier Rojas, then a seven-year-old student at La Escuelita, an alternative school in Pueblo Nuevo, Merida, Venezuela. The photograph was taken as part of the school's "Mi Barrio" project, in which students are working to create a living history of their community. Asier’s compelling image of fellow classmate and shutterbug Keisli Suarez, submitted by photographer and teacher Marcus R. Murray, blew away our panel of judges with its dynamism and unpretentious realism. Congratulations, Asier! His winning photograph, below, can be seen in the centerfold of our Fall 2012 "Radical Media in the Americas" issue.
SUMMER 2012
The winning photographs in NACLA’s Summer 2012 Photo Contest depicted the reality of the some 400,000 undocumented Central Americans who cross Mexico each year trying to make their way to what they hope is a better life in the United States. Some are successful, but many die, disappear, or are kidnapped en route. This migrant trail is a direct result of the global economy that forces individuals from their homes in search of opportunities abroad. Lisbeth Rasch, from Copenhagen, Denmark, took the following photos in December 2011 and January 2012, while volunteering in migrant shelters in Tenosique, Tabasco, and Ixtepec, Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. The famous la bestia train passes through these towns carrying migrants toward the U.S. border. The travelers in these shelters carry with them the essential and nothing more: a toothbrush, perhaps a sweater, and an extra pair of boxers.We thank everyone who submitted pictures.
Send your high-resolution pictures (and caption information) to info@nacla.org, with “NACLA Photo Contest” in the subject line. The winning photograph for each issue will be published in full color in the next NACLA Report. The winning photographer will receive a copy of the magazine featuring their photograph and a one-year-subscription to NACLA.
In order to be considered for the contest, pictures should be high-resolution, 300 DPI, 4” x 6”, or at least 1 MB.
Fourteen-year-old Luisa left home in Guatemala at dawn without waking her parents because she was afraid they wouldn’t let her leave. Now the only thing she carries is the clothing she wears. -Photographer Lisbeth Rasch
Spring 2012 NACLA Photo Contest
Congratulations to the winners of our first ever photo contest: Kevin P. Coleman and James A. Rodríguez. Their entries are powerful depictions of Central America and the legacies of war, the theme of the Spring 2012 NACLA Report on the Americas. The winning photograph (below), "Concert—Voices Against the Coup," was taken by Coleman, a Ph.D candidate at Indiana University. The image was taken during the Voices Against the Coup concert in Tegucigalpa, which, Coleman writes, "featured artists from several Latin American countries who came to show their support for the Honduran people."
An honorable mention goes to the other image below. It was taken in March 2009 by Rodríguez on the 27th anniversary of the Río Negro Massacre, in which 177 women and children were killed by the Guatemalan army. We thank everyone who submitted pictures.
Spring 2012 NACLA Honorable Mention
Spring 2012 NACLA Winning Photograph
In late August 2009, a group of Honduran artists organized a concert in Tegucigalpa as part of a larger effort to restore constitutionality in Honduras. The concert, Voices Against the Coup, featured artists from several Latin American countries who came to show their support for the Honduran people. For me, this photo distills so much about the movement to restore democracy in Honduras: a strong sense of nationalism (the flag is at the center and above the sea of people), the youth, and even sport (the young man is on top of a goalpost). This cross-class, national movement was paradoxically both solid and ephemeral, made up of real citizens outraged at the attack on their rights and their constitution but also ghostly and vulnerable. -Photographer Kevin P. Coleman