Photographer Angela Ponce Romero wins the 2017 ICRC Humanitarian Visa d’Or award

05 July 2017
Photographer Angela Ponce Romero wins the 2017 ICRC Humanitarian Visa d’Or award
L’une des photos primées d'Angela Ponce Romero, récompensée pour son travail sur les « disparus » d’Ayacucho au Pérou.

By unanimous decision of the jury, the Humanitarian Visa d'Or for 2017 has been awarded to Angela Ponce Romero.

Her photo essay, "Ayacucho",* focuses on the people who went missing during the fighting between the Peruvian government and the Shining Path armed group during the 1980s and 1990s. According to Ms Romero, at the height of the violence, many women were attacked physically and sexually, forced into marriage against their will and recruited as child soldiers by various armed groups. Ms Romero's work depicts the survivors, the widows and the orphans seeking justice and the truth about what happened to their missing relatives.

I am extremely happy to receive the Humanitarian Visa d'Or award," she said. "It was very hard work, but I feel the issue deserves so much more attention. Receiving this award is important not only to me but to all the people of Ayacucho.

The Humanitarian Visa d'Or is for professional photographers. Since 2015 it has focused on the issue of women in war: women fighters, prisoners, victims of sexual violence, single mothers and women searching for missing relatives. The jury was composed of Armelle Canitrot (La Croix), Cyril Drouhet (Le Figaro Magazine) Magali Corouge (Magazine Causette), Romain Lacroix (Paris-Match), Magdalena Herrera (Géo), Sébastien Carliez (ICRC) and David-Pierre Marquet (ICRC).

The award will be officially presented to Ms Romero on 7 September in Perpignan, France, during the 29th edition of Visa pour l'Image, the premier international festival of photojournalism. Her work will be on display at the Palais des Corts from 2 to 17 September.

*In Quechua, the Peruvian city of Ayacucho(ayak'uchu) literally means "corner of the dead".