A picture is worth a thousand words, and for societies that have endured decades of violence, a single photograph can preserve an infinite number of memories. Midst the ongoing human rights abuses in Colombia, photography can serve as a strong weapon against forgetting the past.
To encourage public engagement in truth-telling and memorialization in Colombia, ICTJ and the Center for Historic Memory (Centro de Memoria Histórica) are pleased to announce a photography contest for non-professionals.
“In a country where the armed conflict has produced several million victims struggling to rebuild their lives, there is a great need to tell those stories,” said María Camila Moreno, director of ICTJ’s Colombia program. “Photographs spark public consciousness not just for the horrors of war, but for the daily strategies of ordinary people who must rebuild their lives in the wake of such violence.”
Colombian civil society is invited to share their memories of resistance through a series of pictures that capture the impact of the conflict. “Our idea with this contest and the exhibition is to stimulate a public debate on truth-telling, memorialization and the construction of historical memory, making use of one of the art forms that is accessible to almost anyone,” said Ms. Moreno.
The contest will be judged by a panel comprised of academics, victims and professional photographers. The winning selections will be exhibited in October at the launch of “Week for Memory 2012,” and will be published in a catalogue. More details are available here.
