Uniting leaders in photography, politics, research and activism, the event will center around two series, 40 single images and one moving image. In the Series Competition, Vijay Jodha’s First Witnesses tells the poignant story of Indian farmers who commit suicide after erratic climate-induced weather patterns render their farms unviable, thus destroying their livelihoods. “Globally, we are more alive to the common challenges, be it climate change or a pandemic,” says Jodha on what the award means to him. “The involvement of everyone – from the arts community to the scientists and political leaders – offers the possibility of tackling this issue even if some others are laggards.”
Evangelos Daskalakis’ Kawsak Sacha, meanwhile, ruminates on humankind’s capacity to co-exist with the natural world, set amongst an indigenous Kichwa community in the Ecuadorian Amazonia. “The struggle of the natives in Ecuador is nothing more than a small piece in the [broader] mosaic of the destruction of our natural world,” says Daskalakis. “We have to learn from these communities, and realise that the capitalist vision of endless growth has driven us into deadlock.”