Night sky / Zabalo, Ecuador
My semi-annual holiday print sale this year will be in collaboration with the Cofán Survival Fund/Fundación Sobrevivencia Cofán. Archival, exhibition quality pigment prints start at $150, and 60% of all proceeds go directly to support their work to preserve and protect one of the most biodiverse parts of the Amazon basin, and offer educational and employment opportunities to Cofán youth and adults.
For available prints and to place a secure order, please visit the online store here on my site.
If you happen to be in Los Angeles anytime between October 6, 2017 and January 25, 2018, please drop by the Central Library to check out an expanded exhibit from our project, "Going Gray in LA: Stories of Aging along Broadway". We're excited to be showing the exhibit in such an iconic Los Angeles location - and it's free and open to all!
For more info, visit the LAPL exhibit page.
I'm honored to have my work included in this year's Latin American Fotografía awards. You can see my images - from my documentation of last year's protests in Quito and from a story about the indigenous Shipibo community in Lima, Peru - starting here. And check out the slideshow of all of the winning work here. Lots of great stuff there!
After working hard to get our latest project off the ground over the last few months, I'm excited to mention that Rux and I are going to be rolling out the first stories in our year-long collaboration with KCRW's Independent Producer Project at the end of August! Broadway Stories: Going Gray in LA will take audiences on a journey along iconic Broadway Avenue, through the heart of working-class LA, as we explore what really matters for our elders in Los Angeles today.
I hope you'll follow along through Spring 2017.
An adult Rocket Frog found in a nature reserve just outside of Quito, Ecuador is seen in a bottle before being transported back to the lab.
Rux's and my latest collaboration (and last story before leaving Ecuador) is a story for Virginia Quarterly Review, about a small uncharismatic frog that was once believed to be extinct but then was later rediscovered. It's a story about how people in Ecuador mobilized to make sure he wouldn't disappear once again; an unlikely tale of conservation in an age of mass extinctions.
Read the story and see the photo essay here.
Illegal miners in Madre de Dios, Peru (2010).
I’m looking forward to being back in Peru next week for another story about mining, this time in Cajamarca, on assignment for Stockholm-based Blank Spot Project.
Unlike my previous work on mining in the country, this is not going to be about illegal or artisanal mining, like that pictured above. This will be a story about the world’s 2nd largest open-pit mine, the US-based Newmont Mining Corporation-operated Yanacocha mine, where local Peruvians have been protesting the expansion of the mine for the last several years.
Stay tuned for dispatches from the field.
Camila | 20 November 2014 | Quito, Ecuador
I'm honored that another image from my ongoing series documenting my daughter, Camila's, life has been SELECTED for publication in American Photography 31. There is no link yet, but I will update this post soon with a link to the online gallery of selected work.
I have a slideshow in today's Wall Street Journal about Ecuadorean mountaineer and guide, Edgar Parra. Edgar is a great guy, who has led expeditions on some of the most challenging mountains around the world.
Rux and I have a piece in the New York Times opinion section on November 04, 2014, about some of the positive impacts that migration is having for some indigenous women in the Ecuadorean province of Cañar. Though certainly there are many hardships for families and especially children due to migration, in Cañar - the region that has the highest rate of out-migration in Ecuador - many indigenous women who stay, or who return from abroad, have increased financial independence, increased freedom, and more power in their families and communities.
I'm honored to have 2 images from my ongoing personal project documenting everyday life with my young daughter, Camila, SELECTED for American Illustration - American Photography's Latin American Fotografia 3 collection.
You can see all the winning images in an online gallery on the AI-AP site. Some very cool work there!
And if you'll be in New York City in early November (unfortunately, we won't be there), you can see an exhibit of the winning images at a couple AI-AP events - the "Big Talk" symposium on November 5th, and at "The Party" on November 6th.
Wow... it's hard to believe that almost 10 months have passed since I last wrote, when I was just starting my Scripps Fellowship at the University of Colorado-Boulder. But with a then-infant, and now-toddler in our lives, it seems that time passes ever more quickly, and it's often hard to find the time to do things like stay on top of new updates. I had an incredible year during the Fellowship - met lots of great people and learned tons of new things that are already informing the next stages of my work and new stories that Rux and I are working on.
Portrait of a young couple near the Centro Historico in Quito, Ecuador. 05 June 2014
Boulder, CO was a great, mellow home for the year, but we've moved on and are now settling into our new home base in lovely Quito, Ecuador, where we can be closer to the region we've been focusing on over the last several years. It feels great to be back in S. America, and we're excited to be exploring and meeting lots of great people here in Quito.
Rux and I have also started an online photo/audio/print journal in which we're sharing thoughts, images, notes, etc. from the field and from daily life here, as well as a weekly series of photographic and audio portraits of folks with whom we cross paths that we're calling Quito Portraits. We'd love for you to check it out... and check back periodically as the series, the journal, and our work evolves.
It's been such a hectic Summer that I haven't had time to post that I'm honored and excited to be starting the 2013-14 academic year in at the University of Colorado - Boulder as one of five Scripps Fellows in Environmental Journalism . We're already here in beautiful Boulder, and I'm looking forward to an inspiring, educational, and fun year of going back to school and being surrounded by other passionate journalists and storytellers! Stay tuned for updates...
I'll be in Thailand from June 29-July 13, and available for assignments. Please send an email to bear@bearguerra for inquiries.
Bangkok | June 29, 2013 (photo by Bear Guerra)
I'm humbled to have been chosen as an Honorable Mention in this year's FotoVisura Grant competition. And, congratulations and best wishes to the winner, Andrea Gjestvang, and the other finalists - all of whom have excellent, important projects. At a time when we all know how difficult it is to pursue documentary photography, it's inspiring to see so many dedicated photographers from around the world doing great work. Congrats to everyone who was recognized this year!