(Virtual) BDC Conversations
Florence Goupil + Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo

In Latin America, the boundaries between the public and the private, the state and the citizens, are changing. Social movements, with a renewed push towards new currents of gender, environment and social justice, are gaining ground to present their views and demand paradigm changes outside the established status quo. The current world crisis unleashed by the appearance of the novel coronavirus also poses significant changes and revisions regarding civil and social responsibilities, the role of science, health, faith, technology, government, the global economy, lifestyle and in the way we relate socially (face to face and with social distancing).

 

How do the political and social context of their countries affect or inspire their photography? Are their photos their own vessel of expression or are they used to be the voice of others? Does their practice begin by searching or do the stories find them? How does the approach to their work affect the final outcome? Is their editing process part of the effectiveness of communicating their message? Are there any differences between publishing virtually and physically, as in photobooks and exhibitions? Can photographers find ways to unleash these particular moments we are passing through? Is this crisis an opportunity to expand our sense of what photography is or should be? Has the coronavirus situation brought changes to their praxis?

 

These are some of the questions that will come up during the Instagram conversations in: "From CONTEXT+LIFE, To METHOD+PHOTO / Volume TWO", which presents Latin American photographers Andrea Hernández Briceno, Rodrigo Abd & Florence Goupil in conversation with Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo.

Florence Goupil is a French and Peruvian photographer based in Cusco, Peru. She studied at L'École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Rennes and later at University of Rennes 2, where she graduated in Multimedia and Editorial Design. Florence is currently an Explorer at National Geographic Explorer. Raised in an Andean family, sheltered by the stories of their traditions, but educated in the French school, Florence grew up between two cultures. Hence her deep commitment to issues such as human rights, identity, environment and spirituality in Peru and Latin America. Her work has been exhibited at the International Center for Photography (ICP) and Format Festival, published in National Geographic, BBC, Polka Magazine, El País, BJP and other international media. She is a contributor for Le Monde and Ojo-Publico. In 2020 she was nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass of Worldpress photo and was awarded a grant by the National Geographic Society. She is currently based in the Peruvian Amazon doing a reportage about the COVID-19 situation in an indigenous community, after obtaining the National Geographic Society Emergency Fund for Journalists. For this project, she was recently awarded with the 2020 Getty Images Reportage Grant and the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Journalism Fund Grant. In 2021, she received the POY Latam Honor Mention for Photographer of the Year and was nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award.

Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo (1979) is an architect at the National University of Colombia -Manizales branch- with a MA (merit) in Photography and Urban Cultures coursed at Goldsmiths College, University of London after receiving a Colfuturo Scholarship. Santiago has photographed in South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and United States. His projects have been exhibited in over 80 individual and collective exhibitions, both national and international and he has earned various acknowledgments and distinctions. He took part in the 42nd Colombian National exhibition of artists; in the International Image Festival in Manizales; in Fototeca de Cuba; Trasatlántica-PhotoEspaña in Montevideo and Oaxaca; and in international art festivals in Istanbul and Venice, among others. Santiago has photographed for Villegas Editores, Revista Semana, UNHCR, MFO-Egypt, ICIPE-Kenya), CUCR-Goldsmiths. He runs workshops at Zona Cinco in Bogota-Colombia, La Havana-Cuba, New York-USA; in Cambodia for Don Bosco Vocational Center; and for National Geographic Student Expeditions in London-UK. He has published books as Solidarity In Colombia, London, Gap My Mind and Elefante Blanco. Currently, he is the author of the project 'COLOMBIA, tierra de luz (Land of Light)' which has been exhibited and presented at the DRCLAS@Harvard University, MIT and Emerson College in Boston, MA-USA. Director of CROMA Taller Visual and member of Colectivo +1. He is also Fujifilm’s X-Photographer.

 

 

IMAGE: © Florence Goupil