Mexican photographers awarded the World Press Photo

The Franz Mayer Museum opens its doors to the 62nd edition of World Press Photo, which on this occasion recognized the work of Mexican photographers Pedro Pardo and Yael Martínez. Under the slogan "Stories that tell", 140 pieces are exhibited divided into eight thematic axes: Sports, People, News, Long-term projects, Contemporary themes, Nature, General news, and Environment.

In this edition, two Mexican photographers were the winners: Pedro Pardo won third place in the News category for the photography Border Crossing and Yael Martínez the second place in Long-term Projects with the series La casa que sangra (The House that bleeds). Photographer Yael Martínez explained that "this is a project that I started in 2013 about the problems generated by violence; in that year we had a loss within the family nucleus.

"Some of my wife's brothers disappeared and what began was to try to make documentation within the domestic space, within our family nucleus, to try how to represent these psychological and emotional fractures that are being generated about a duel that is not closed."

He commented that "the project has been expanding over time, not only with families from the northern region of Guerrero but also to work in Sinaloa with a group of women, the Rastreadoras de El Fuerte, who represent them (Mirna) Nereida Medina, trying to conceptualize what history is. Babette Warendorf, the curator of World Press Photo 2019, highlighted that "every year we get a lot of photos, this year almost 80,000; then we select a jury that has two weeks to select all this and what you see here is the best photojournalism of last year.

She also reported that "The World Press Photo of the year, which is for the jury the most significant photo of last year and this year, was won by John Moore. "He is a photographer from the United States who won with the image of a girl crying at the border, who went viral when he published it, and who became the face of Donald Trump's zero-tolerance policy," she said.

According to curator Babette Warendorf, "it's extremely important to have the exhibition at Franz Mayer like every year, to show not only what Mexican photojournalism is but also to support the journalists who work here under very, very harsh circumstances.

"Mexico is the deadliest country in the world. It became more deadly this year, even than war zones like Syria, Afghanistan, and that for World Press Photo is a lot. That's why we want to be here, to support all the photojournalists and journalists who continue to work under very difficult circumstances."

According to Yael Martínez, "the work is super dangerous, especially in different areas and much more for the people who continue to do this local journalism because the degree of exposure is much higher. He said that this year, along with some other colleagues, a new space called Frontline Mexico was created for independent journalists.

"What we are trying to do is to generate a community so that this community is strengthened and we can try to fight for all these rights that have been lost over time. World Press Photo 2019 will travel to 100 places around the world in 45 countries; in Mexico, it will be open until September 15 at the Franz Mayer Museum.