Madrid (EFE) life crossing the Darién Gap”, a series published in El Colombiano of Medellín.
Saldarriaga, who will receive the award this Thursday from the King of Spain, Felipe VI, is the fourth time he has received the award, three of them in the Photography category and one in Multimedia.
Saldarriaga, fourth time receiving the award
Being the winner again in this edition is for him something “magical”, “unthinkable”: “I have been lucky, blessed by God”, he said in an interview with EFE.
The initiative for the photographic series arose from the director of El Colombiano, Luz María Sierra, who assumed the importance of traveling to the department of Urabá, where many Haitians arrived trying to cross the Darién Gap, the jungle that serves as the border with Panama, with the aim of reaching the United States, “to his American dream”, Saldarriaga has recounted.
“Approximately 400 migrants leave daily for the Darién, they arrive in an area called Acandí and later they go to the TECA camp, which is controlled by the Gulf clan. Then, with the help of coyotes, they cross the entire plug until they reach the border with Panama”, he explained.
“Risking life crossing the Darien Gap”
The photographer describes the work he did on that journey as “arduous, very hard”, but “I got so involved, I gave myself so much to the subject that I didn’t really feel the journey that much. I focused on doing the best possible photos and videos ”, he assured.
“Migrants are difficult to photograph, they don’t like it, because they don’t want to see themselves visible so their family doesn’t see how hard it is to go through it. They leave their country with an American dream, but it is expensive and there is a lot of suffering along the way”, he pointed out.
His advantage was socializing with them, helping them carry their things, the children, and “that made my job easier. And also tiredness. There comes a time when they don’t even have the courage to tell you not to take pictures of them. Also the good weather those days helped ”, she added.
For Saldarriaga, who considers himself an “integral” photographer, since he covers different topics, the image has the power to sensitize people more quickly and to make them want to know what is behind it.
However, I would not call the award-winning work a “complaint”, but rather an account of reality.
“I also try to take a photograph to socialize and that in one way or another by exposing it in the newspaper it becomes visible and someone in the world says: let’s help. It will be very difficult to help everyone, but with one person it was worth raising awareness ”, she assured.
The King of Spain International Journalism Awards, the most prestigious in the Ibero-American sphere, celebrate their 40th anniversary. They were created by the EFE Agency and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Aecid).
In addition to the economic endowment of 10,000 euros (10,800 dollars at current exchange rates) -an amount that places them at the Pulitzer level-, the winners will receive from Felipe VI a sculpture by the Spanish artist Joaquín Vaquero Turcios.
(Photo / Video)