MEXICO CITY — A photographer for a newspaper in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, which has been dominated by drug cartels, was found shot to death, prosecutors said Thursday.

The body of news photographer Ismael Villagómez was found in the driver’s seat of a car just after midnight Thursday in Ciudad Juarez, a violence-plagued city across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Villagómez’s newspaper, the Heraldo de Juarez, said he was found dead in a car that he had registered to use for work for a ride-hailing app. Given low salaries, it is not uncommon for journalists in Mexico to hold down more than one job. The newspaper said his phone was not found at the scene.

Ciudad Juarez has been dominated by drug cartels and their turf battles for almost two decades, and gangs often object to photos of their victims or their activities being published.

Carlos Manuel Salas, a prosecutor for the northern border state of Chihuahua, said authorities are investigating whether Villagómez had a fare at the time, or whether the killing was related to his work as a photographer.

The Committee to Protect Journalists made an urgent call for authorities to investigate the killing.

His death was the fifth instance of a journalist being killed in Mexico so far in 2023.

In September, Jesús Gutiérrez, a journalist who ran a community Facebook news page, was killed in the northern Mexico border town of San Luis Rio Colorado when he was apparently caught in the cross-fire of an attack aimed at police.

Prosecutors in the northern border state of Sonora said Gutiérrez was talking with the police officers, who were his neighbors, when they were hit by a hail of gunfire, killing one policeman and wounding the other three. They said Gutiérrez’ death was “collateral” to the attack on the police.

At least three other journalists have been killed so far this year in Mexico, which has become one of the deadliest places in the world for journalists outside a war zone.

In the past five years alone, the Committee to Protect Journalists documented the killings of at least 52 journalists in Mexico.

Last year was the deadliest in recent memory for Mexican journalists, with 15 killed. That year, Mexico was one of the deadliest places in the world for journalists, second only to Ukraine.

Between 1939 and 1996 the government hired dozens of photographers to document life around Australia.

Now many of their diverse works of intimate nature photography, striking architectural shots and captured everyday memories from Australia’s past will be displayed in a new exhibition at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra.

Curator of the Focus: Australian government photographers exhibition Emily Catt said the job of government photographers 80 years ago was to “create a photographic library of Australia”.

“If you think about now, if you want to know something about a country, you go online and you google search it and you’re going to get great results quite easily,” she said.

Established during World War II, the Department of Information changed names and purposes slightly throughout the decades before being merged with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and largely wrapping up in the 90s, with the invention of the internet.

But its employed photographers left behind an archive of images showing a slice of everyday life in Australia.

“People assume [archived images are] just prime ministerial meet and greets,” Ms Catt said.

The department had offices both in Australia and overseas, released their own publications and put on exhibitions.

But the department also supplied images to other news bureaus and publications, and even to the general public.

“I don’t believe the student got her koala, which is sad for her.”

‘Really tried to push it back to the people’

For Ms Catt, a stand-out photographer in the exhibition is Keith Byron, who she said had a great talent for capturing people’s emotional reactions.

“We have him photographing the audience at a sports event, and there is an audience member who is having an experience that everyone has – he’s got both his hands on his face, and he looks sort of horrified,” she said.

Ms Catt said Byron’s photography worked well for the exhibition’s focus on everyday Australians over big events and well-known people.

“He also has a photograph of two young boys that have climbed a tree to get a better view, and they look so happy and a bit smug being up there,” she said.

‘Anglo-Celtic and very male-dominated’

Ms Catt said a major struggle in putting the exhibition together was the almost exclusively Anglo-Celtic male perspective of the government employed photographers.

But it does include one First Nations photographer, Mervin Bishop, who was the first Indigenous photographer to work for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

“He manages to create these very very sensitive, up close and very personal portraits of these individuals – they’re very, very powerful.

“There’s a photograph of a little girl he took on the bus, and she’s almost staring down the photographer. It’s a really great, powerful photograph.”

The collection also includes the work of one female photographer, Jocelyn Burt, who was not one of the photographers employed by the government but did freelance work for the department.

“She would go up there, do nursing and take these photographs, and then the government departments actually purchased her photos – so they thought they were great enough to acquire and bring into the collection.”

The Focus: Australian government photographers exhibition opens today at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra.

The exhibition will run until June 10, 2024, and has free entry.

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SARATOGA SPRINGS — Nancy Muldoon will present “The Saratoga Experience” from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 12. 

The photography exhibit will take place at the Roosevelt II Building in the Saratoga Spa State Park. It is free and open to the public. The program was made possible through Saratoga Arts’ Community Arts Regrant Program. 

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The Gallery at Redlands is proud to welcome Tyler photographer C. Michael Rogers for a special event during the Whiskey & Wine Swirl weekend.

Rogers will be holding a Gallery Talk at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17 on the first-floor lobby of The Redlands Hotel. He will also be featured form 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18 during the Whiskey & Wine Swirl event.

“Mike believes that art is not a measure of skill, but of passion,” said Redlands Galley owner David Tripp. “He specializes in artistically enhanced nature and landscape photography on a variety of substrates such as metal, canvas and ceramic. We are very happy to host him and his work here in Palestine.”

Rogers will display his box sets of coasters, a special addition to his body of work. These will be on display and for sale throughout the weekend.

Rogers and his wife, Cheryl, are lifelong residents of Tyler. They were recent recipients of the 2023 Kay Arms Lifetime Achievement Award. Both skilled musicians, they have enriched East Texas art education for many years.

“Our Gallery Talk events are such a wonderful way for the community to meet our featured artists and learn about their work and inspirations,” Tripp said. “We hope everyone will come out and enjoy Mike’s amazing work.”

The Gallery at Redlands is located inside the historic Redlands Hotel at 400 N. Queen St. in Palestine. For more information call 817-821-8702 or visit www.galleryredlands.com.

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The beautiful winning images of the 2023 international Nature Photographer of the Year contest celebrating the beauty of nature photography were unveiled at an awards ceremony that took place at the annual Nature Talks Photo Festival in the Netherlands.

The NPOTY prizes include €3,000 for the winner and €500 cash prizes and photo equipment for the category winners. The organization supports various nature conservations projects such as Photographer Against Wildlife Crime.

The winning images are displayed at a photo exhibition devoted to the festival and will travel afterwards through the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

The next contest will start on December 20, 2023.

The 2023 title of Nature Photographer of the Year was awarded to Jacquie Matechuk, a nature photographer from Canada, for her Spectacled Bear image (below): “The Spanish moss hanging from this centuries-old fig tree gives an incredible sense of three-dimensionality, while the soft light filtering through the colors highlights the profound connection between species and habitat,” the jury said about the image.

Overall Winner

“Spanning more than 8,000 kilometers, the Andean Mountain range occupies more than a quarter of the land surface in Ecuador,” Matechuk said. “Rich in biodiversity, it’s also home to a unique species called the Spectacled Bear.”

In this image, Tony—a large male and frequent traveler through these parts—had climbed into a century-old fig tree seeking refuge from the midday sun. It was draped in Spanish moss, gently swaying with each breath inhaled and exhaled by the canyon walls.

This image of a pink flamingo was taken in the French Camargue last winter. At certain times of the year and in certain places, the water level drops and the substrate becomes denser. Despite this, Greater Flamingos like to come and look for food in the muddy water.

A thin film of black mud clings to their plumage for a few seconds.

Birds Of A feather

“At the beginning of 2022, we were surprised by news in the local press that the Al-Jarim area, located north of the Kingdom of Bahrain, would be transformed into industrial areas and tourist resorts,” Omran explains.

With this image of the Socotra cormorants that breed in the islands, with their necks elongated by slow shutter while moving the camera up, the photographer wants to send a message: The birds are monitoring the place, on the lookout for any intruder that wants to seize their space.

This picture of Hoopoe was taken in Dubai at the Al Qudra Lakes. This Hoopoe bird was on its daily routine of catching prey.

“I observed that each time it caught a prey, it flew in the same direction to a nearby tree which gave me the idea to photograph the bird against a background with light and dark sides to represent the dark and light sides of existence,” said Valiyandiyil.

Mammals Category

Every 10 to 15 minutes, this Polar bear sitting in front of a sand dune covered with snow would rise up and shake off as strong winds and a massive blizzard fell on the Hudson Bay coast in Churchill Manitoba Canada.

Under The Sea

This image of a paper nautilus with jellyfish was shot in Balayan Bay, Batangas, Philippines during a Blackwater dive. This type of dive is performed over very deep water at night. “At approximately 10-15 meters of depth, I spotted this paper nautilus or Argonaut, which is often seen riding on the back of a jellyfish,” Capozolla recalled. “This paper nautilus is a female as it features a thinly secreted coiled shell or egg case which resembles a hat. These unique cephalopods rise towards the surface at night to feed and in this case, aerate their eggs.”

In a huge crowd of Moon jellyfish, the female changes her body color to pink or purple when she’s ready for spawning eggs as many males chase after her.

In spring, amphibians migrate en masse to the water to mate.

Young Photographers

In Black And White

Lentorre, nestled alongside the Maasai Mara grasslands in Kenya, is a highland region known for its breathtaking natural beauty. However, in recent years, it has been experiencing the harsh impacts of the monsoon and the effects of global climate change, resulting in prolonged periods of scorching, arid weather.

At night, many wild animals arrive to quench their thirst in this watering hole. First there were antelopes, zebras, giraffes, porcupines and mongooses. Then, Li explains, “an eerie stillness fell over the water, signaling that something was about to unfold: Emerging gracefully from the obscurity of the thicket, an adult leopard made its grand entrance. As the apex predator, it displayed none of the timidness seen in herbivorous animals.

Slowly and deliberately, it patrolled the water’s edge, casting a flawless reflection in the tranquil pool. When it reached a sinuous tree at the water’s edge, it executed a graceful pivot, the epitome of elegance in the Kenyan night.”

In the Canadian High Arctic, the photographer lay flat on the ground as the temperature dropped below -40 degrees, and this herd of Musk Ox, some of which weigh up to 400 kilos each, charged at full speed.

“It was a real test of nerve, as they approached me, to stay flat to the ground, to capture the image, said Gibbon. “As they got closer, I quickly stood up and, thankfully, the herd changed direction and ran past me.

Art In Nature

The vibrant colors of the gills of a mushroom lying upside down seem to wave under the natural, soft forest light.

“The big lesson I learned through this image is to slow down in nature and not only take in its beautiful grand vistas but to appreciate all the small marvels offered by nature,” said Rumpf.

The red wicker fields in Cañamaras, Cuenca, Spain offer a unique visual spectacle.

A black-speckled palm pit viper curls in the cloud forest of the Cordillera de Talamanca, Costa Rica. The snake was on the ground basking in the sun. “It was extremely difficult to spot the camouflaged viper in the colorful and dense pattern of mosses and epiphytes,” Carugati explained.

Humans And Nature

Nautili are grabby little creatures known to latch onto passing jellyfish in the ocean, either as a mode of travel or for more advantageous reasons, like sneakily siphoning the jellyfish’s food for themselves.

“I did a double-take at how cartoonish this Nautilus looked when I first saw it in Anilao (Philippines),” said Toh. “But its initial silliness hid a sobering truth: Despite living more than 20 meters underwater, this Nautilus had found this plastic packaging.”

Leopards are some of the most elusive and adaptable big cats in India. Habitat loss due to rapid urbanization has pushed these big cats close to human habitation. They use farmlands and human settlements to hunt small mammals, poultry, other farm animals and stray or free-roaming dogs.

These majestic cats are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.

“No Land for Leopard” is an ongoing project that for five years has been capturing urban wildlife through camera trapping in and around Mysore in south India. This image, showing how close these cats move around human habitation is part of the series. It also reiterates that “we humans live in a shared space.”

Every year, about 15% of the population of the threatened wood bison in northern British Columbia dies as a result of road collisions with cars.

When winter arrives, sometimes the snow is so deep the wood bison herds that inhabit the forest along the Alaska Highway tend to use the snow-free highway to move from one grazing area to another.

Plants And Fungi

Blue auto-fluorescing star-shaped defensive hairs covering the surface of a Deutzia leaf are silhouetted against the leaf’s red-fluorescing chlorophyll-packed cells. When exposed to invisible ultraviolet light (but visible to insects), plant chlorophyll fluoresces bright red.

All green plants fluoresce red while photosynthesizing. Measurable fluctuations in this fluorescence indicate the plant’s health and ability to fix carbon. Environmental stress (for example, heat waves, dry spells, flooding) brought on by climate change can severely impair a plant’s ability to photosynthesize, and in turn, impact crop productivity and food production.

The “Other” Animals

A December moth lands on an antler-shaped fungus as the air current spreads the spore clouds released by the 3-5 centimeter-tall mushroom. The image was taken on a cold evening last November in Börzsöny Hill, Hungary.

A water wolf spider rests in a giant Victoria regia Lindl leaf vein framework.

This kind of water wolf spider lives near the water (hence its name) and can float and even run on the surface due to its light weight and dense hydrophobic hairs on its toes.

Beautiful Landscapes

Summer sunset by the sea in Oravais, Finland.

A red sunrise illuminates the grass with the first light of the day as the fog lifts from the trees in eastern France’s Vosges mountains, creating a cold/warm contrast that looks like fire in the foreground.

Portfolio Award

Balam (jaguar in the Mayan language) is considered an umbrella species and an indicator of the conservation status of ecosystems, since it is at the top of the food chain and needs large areas of land to survive.

Unfortunately, in Mexico, it’s listed as an endangered species. Illegal hunting, habitat fragmentation and the destruction of natural areas have caused an increase in negative interactions with humans.

As their habitat is reduced and the populations of their potential prey decrease, they are forced to approach human settlements to feed on cattle and other domestic animals, which most of the time does not end well for jaguars.

Despite all of the above, there are people and organizations dedicated to the study and conservation of these cats, developing strategies to preserve the natural areas where they live to mitigate the negative impact of human actions.

The images were taken on the Yucatán Peninsula.

See all the winning photos and photographers comments here.

“Kuwait, 1991” (Photo: © Sebastião Salgado)
“The fight against burning oil wells, Kuwait oil fields, 1991.”

Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado is being honored by the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards. Salgado, who has traveled to over 120 countries for his social documentary projects, will be the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award. It’s a fitting show of respect for Salgado, whose career spans more than 50 years.

Known for his remarkable black-and-white photographs, Salgado began his life as an economist working for the International Coffee Organization. As part of his work, he often traveled to Africa, and it was during those trips that he began to take his photography more seriously. He began his career as a full-time photographer in 1973 and has never looked back.

“Ranging from poignant portraits of Indigenous communities and industrial workers, to surveys of migration and striking panoramas of the natural world, Salgado’s distinctive photographic style has resonated with global audiences,” shares the World Photography Organisation, which organizes the awards. “His images, exhibited across leading cultural institutions and featured in major publications around the world, have become emblematic of contemporary photographic journalism.”

Dozens of photos by Salgado will grace the walls of London’s Somerset House as part of the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards exhibition. Running from April 19 to May 6, 2024, the exhibition is a wonderful opportunity to see the talented photojournalist’s work in person. Some of the photos on view come from his projects Workers, which examines the effects of heavy manual labor across several industries, and Amazônia, which focuses on Brazil’s Amazonian forest and the Indigenous peoples who inhabit it.

“I am honored to receive this award and to know that my work is reaching audiences,” shares Salgado. “Photography is my way of life, it is my language, and throughout my career, I have always been interested in capturing the historical moment in which we are living, and telling the stories of our species and our planet. A photographer photographs with his heritage, and in my work, I seek to explore our shared human experience.”

Renowned photojournalist Sebastião Salgado is the Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024.

“Ethiopia, 1984” (Photo: © Sebastião Salgado)
“Draped in blankets to keep out the cold morning wind, refugees wait outside Korem camp.”

Salgado is known for his remarkable black-and-white photography that focuses on social documentation.

“Galápagos, Ecuador, 2004” (Photo: © Sebastião Salgado)
“Marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus). Like other ectothermal reptiles, the marine iguana must regulate its own body temperature: as soon as the sun rises, it lies flat, warming as much body area as possible until the temperature reaches 95.9° Fahrenheit (35.5° Celsius); it then changes position to avoid overheating. The marine iguana needs a high body temperature in order to swim, to move about and to digest. Galápagos. Ecuador. January, February and March 2004.”

World Photography Organisation: Website | Facebook | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by the World Photography Organisation.

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