“Ojos Propios” Photo Contest on Inequality
OJOS PROPIOS is very flattered by the vision of ReVista of our work, a kind gesture that makes us to want to continue contributing to the life and well-being of so many people and communities, especially in Peru, whose richness and variety of cultures has allowed us to forge a melting pot of knowledge and learning, whose fruits can be seen here.
Ojos Propios proposes to the participants of our projects a challenge that is difficult to perceive without experiencing it, and it is a grounding that results when people themselves bring their feelings and look to their deepest issues. To use a photographic term, we could say that the depth of field that is generated is excellent and transforming, which is reflected in the reality of the participating communities.
For us, it is significant that the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University has chosen us for this project. EL PERÚ DE CONTRASTES, presenting images that reflect economic differences.
We opened the contest for about two months and reached out to friends and colleagues through social networks. In the photos received, there is a clear awareness (almost negationist) of the contrasts and the level of the degrees of difference in economic systems and ways of life make the search for satisfaction of basic needs common to economic differences. The visualization of these contrasts and the need to evidence them is more related to a level of culture, education and training, in which daily life is an urgency that does not give space and that allows them an economic and social self-analysis to put it in images.
The most important thing is day-to-day living and the fulfillment of the minimum satisfaction goals that their environment demands and is based on the makeup of the family and the prevailing education.
We are a nation of an informal, emerging economy and a thousand interpretations in which economic difference is relegated to the achievement of goals as individuals, family groups and organized communities.
That said, we present in this issue of ReVista a selection of photos looking at economic and cultural differences that trigger a very clear discourse in which survival is evident in the structure of their images.
We wish to thank the contest applicants who publicized the contest and sent in photos.
Ojos Propios Concurso
Por Andrés Longhi
EN OJOS PROPIOS nos hemos sentido muy halagados por la visión de ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America acerca de nuestro trabajo, un gesto bondadoso que solo nos obliga a seguir contribuyendo con la vida y el bienestar de tanta gente y comunidades involucradas, especialmente en el Perú, cuya riqueza y variedad de culturas nos ha permitido forjar un crisol de conocimientos y aprendizajes, ahora de formación evidente.
La mirada con OJOS PROPIOS propone a los participantes de nuestros proyectos un reto que es difícil de advertir cuando uno no está viviendo ello, y es un enraizamiento que aflora cuando la propia población lleva su sentimiento y mirada a sus temas más profundos. Utilizando un término fotográfico, podríamos decir que la profundidad de campo que se genera es excelsa y transformadora, lo que se plasma en la propia realidad de las comunidades participantes.
Para nosotros es tan significativo que el Centro David Rockefeller para Estudios Latinoamericanos de la Universidad de Harvard nos haya escogido para esta gestión. Debo señalar que luego de una convocatoria de unos dos meses y con revisiones permanentes en las redes sociales de socios, amigos y miembros de la comunidad que de alguna manera también están en contacto con nosotros por diferentes medios o que fueron referidos por amigos comunes. Hay una percepción muy clara y es que la toma de conciencia (casi negacionista) de los contrastes y el nivel de los grados de diferencia en sistemas económicos y maneras de vida hacen que la búsqueda de satisfacción de necesidades básicas no está en relación a las diferencias económicas. La visualización de estos contrastes y la necesidad de evidenciarlos está más relacionada a un nivel de cultura, educación y formación, donde la vida diaria es una urgencia que no da espacio y que les permita un auto análisis económico y social para ponerlo en imágenes.
Lo más importante es la gestión diaria y el cumplimiento de las metas de satisfacción mínima que su entorno pide y se basa en la formación familiar y educación clásica que prevalece.
Somos una nación de economía informal, emergente y de mil interpretaciones donde la diferencia económica está relegada a la satisfacción en primer lugar de los cumplimientos de meta como personas, grupos familiares y comunidades organizadas.
Dicho lo anterior, presentamos una selección ajustada a los signos evidentes en diferencias económicas y culturales que desencadenan un discurso donde la sobrevivencia es evidente en la estructura de sus imágenes.
Debemos agradecer a los muchos postulantes que colaboraron y también enviaron imágenes que se ajustaron al pedido.
Andrés Longhi is the executive director of Ojos Propios.
Andrés Longhi es el director ejecutivo de Ojos Propios en Perú.
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