Waorani women win the Latin American Photography Award with a photoweaving project

The waorani women they raise their voices loudly in defense of their territories and traditions; and also raises the flag of Ecuador. Recently, the photographic work of the Collective women watch was awarded in the Photos of the year Latam (POY Latam), in the category Our look.

The ancestral value of the Waorani woman is exalted in Guayaquil, at the Cocoa Museum

The artists were honored for their work Onkiyenani Aranipa (Mujeres mirando), a series of photo weaves with which they built new interdisciplinary stories in dialogue with the origin. The photos were embroidered between 2019 and 2022 with dyed chambira threads, the fiber that Waorani women collect from the jungle and with which they make their fabrics.

“These photos try to make traditional work visible and to revalue it as an economic alternative in the face of development projects that increasingly violate the integrity of the Waorani people,” reads the curatorship of the project.

It was a collaborative work consisting of Manuela Imaleader and Waorani weaver; Romelia Angelica, Kichwa Shuar entrepreneur; And Carolina Zambrano, coastal photographer. Three girlfriends and wives who have accompanied each other in the jungle for 15 years.

“I find the collaboration between all these women to create these images very inspiring,” said Coral Carballo, one of the category judges. The specialist emphasized that this work looks at the defense of the area in the Amazon.

Meanwhile, the collective reacted to this recognition with great joy. “We believe that it is very difficult and incomprehensible to make visible everything that shapes us as a region. However, we celebrate that the Amazon and women’s views of that area are not excluded,” he wrote on his social networks.

Works from Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico were also recognized in this category.

He POY Latin also awarded first place to the Ecuadorian photographer Isadora Romeroin the category Transmedia with his audiovisual work The blood is a seed. This six-minute audiovisual questions the disappearance of seeds, forced migration, racism, colonization and the resulting loss of ancestral knowledge.

Romero is an independent visual storyteller, her projects address social, gender and environmental issues.

POY Latin He also recognized the work of other Ecuadorian photographers such as: Karla V Gachet, who stood out with his work in the category ‘Long term projects’ Jenny’s Journey; she herself won with her work in the category ‘Identity and gender’ Medicine women. He also illuminated in this last category Johis Alarcon, of Cimarrona, I’m black because the sun looked at me. Alarcón also stood out in the Photo Books category with the same work.

“Something that is very clear is that now the trend to tell more subjective stories is in vogue, using evocative imagery, or combining dreamy or magical imagery with more realistic imagery,” said Paul Korral, founder and director of the POY Latam Prize, in an interview published on the competition’s website.

Since 2011, the Pictures of the Year Latam (POY Latam) recognizes and rewards the work of journalists and photography artists in Latin America. In its seventh edition, the contest received 27,357 images from 1,388 visual creators from all Latin American countries who entered in 17 categories. The deliberations of the jurors were broadcast live.