Founded in 2002 under the auspices of the Union Latine, the Prix Martin Chambi, aims to support and promote the work of photographers from the organization’s 36 member countries.
To celebrate the 10th edition, the officials of the Prix Martin Chambi have chosen the following theme: the representation of the family today. “The continual meeting of cultures creates new human landscapes that are reflected in family life. To tell the story of these landscapes through the language of contemporary photography, its revolution, its future—that’s where the challenge lies for our photographers and their talent.
The 2011 jury was comprised of Lisa Ginzburg, the cultural director of the Union Latine; Jeanne Mercier, co-founder and coordinator of Afrique in visu; Laura Serani, curator of exhibitions and artistic co-director of the Rencontres de Bamako; and Xavier Soule, director of VU’ / Groupe Abvent. They chose the Brazilian photographer Marcello Buainain as the winner.
Buainain was born in 1962 in Campo Grande, Brazil, and defines himself as a documentary photographer, shooting coal mines in Mato Grosso, Brazil, the religious festivals in India, and tanneries in Egypt and Morocco.
Speaking of this year’s theme, Buainain said: “Balzac considered family—and not the individual—as a veritable social element. As someone who covers subject with a social nature, I realize that this theme appears throughout my work. My travels and my experience have taught me that family is a universal concept. The series submitted for the Prix Chambi was taken in India and Brazil, two recurrings settings in my work. My ambition is not only to present variations on the traditional family, but also to initiate a dialogue between them, in order to show that the concept of family in the modern world can take many different forms.”
The prize will be awarded at the Galerie VU’ on September 6, 2012, and the series will be exhibited from September 3 through September 8.
Galerie VU’
Hôtel Paul Delaroche
58 rue Saint Lazare
75009 Paris
