translated from Spanish: ENFOTO Award 2019 falls on photo series “Black Bilis” by Alex Vidal Brecas

“Black Bilis,” the photographic essay that reflects on the symbiosis between the landscape and autumn in southern Chile, and how this relationship affects the mood and emotional state of its inhabitants, is the new winning work of the photographic contest.
For its author, the recognition was a pleasant surprise. “The ENFOTO award encourages me to further develop the authorial work. For this reason, I am grateful for the space of ENFOTO, the Cultual Corporation of Puerto Montt and Diego Rivera for giving this space to the photographers that we are interested in working on personal photographic projects,” said the author of the winning work.
The play
Inspired by the change of light that occurs between the summer and autumn seasons, the 11 photographs that make up the winning series seek, according to its author, also to portray the emotional and emotional change of people. “In that trance between summer and autumn there is a change of light that I also perceived as a change in people’s emotional state. You start to be held, to make life indoors (…). There is a symbiosis between landscapes and weather, and they have nothing to do with rain. I wanted to represent this through the atmosphere; represent ingescy and neglect of people through their mood.”
Credit: Alex Vidal Brecas
Journalist and photographer
Originally from the commune of Llanquihue, he holds a degree in Journalism from the University of La Frontera, and has a Diploma in Photography from the University of Chile and another on Visual Anthropology at the Catholic University of Temuco.
Currently, he is Professor of Photography at the University of Los Lagos de Osorno and works as a freelance photographer in the city of Puerto Varas and a permanent collaborator of various media in the area, national and foreign agencies. “Although I am a journalist by profession, I decided to focus on the photo because it is a means of expression that is given to be able to express what you feel and see and live on a daily basis; then, I try to tell stories through photography – which I relate more to communication than to art,” Vidal said.
Specializing in reporting, the author focuses his work on documentary photography and authorial photojournalism, addressing topics related to identity, rurality and the different relationships that occur between human groups.
It should be noted that 2015 obtained honorable mention in the category “Ethnophotograph” in the First Regional Meeting of Photography Los Lagos and that same year, one of her photographs was chosen by the English newspaper The Guardian in a selection of the 20 best photos of the year and by r Time, among the 100 best images of 2015.
In 2016, he was part of the anniversary exhibition of the EFE Agency (“EFE, 50 years counting Chile”) and, that same year, he obtained two honorable mentions in the 38th National Photojournalism Exhibition in the categories “Daily Life” and “Portrait Reporting”.
During this year, it is implementing the project financed by the Fondart Regional, “Maritorio, Visual Imaginary of the coasts of the province of Llanquihue”, and becomes a creditor of ENFOTO 2019 that will lead it, for the first time, to exhibit an exhibition project el individuo, la individua.
ENFOTO Competition and Prize 2019
For the fifth consecutive year the Cultural Corporation of Puerto Montt, with the support of the Regional Ministerial Secretariat of Los Lagos of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage and the Municipality of Puerto Montt, invited to participate in the exhibition creators from the Los Ríos, Los Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes regions. Thus, the collective exhibition, which opened on August 8, contemplated the exhibition of 22 selected works, which were evaluated by the jury composed by the photographers Miguel Angel Larrea, Alexis Díaz Belmar and Catalina de la Cruz.
Inauguration ENFOTO2019
Thus, the first place of ENFOTO will grant the winner the possibility of developing an individual exhibition during 2020 at the Diego Rivera House of Art and one million pesos for the production of that exhibition, in addition to a scholarship to participate in the International Festival of Art Photograph of Valparaiso 2019.
It should be noted that the collective exhibition ENFOTO 2019 will keep its doors open to the public in the Hardy Wistuba Room of the Diego Rivera Art House, until Saturday, September 14.

Original source in Spanish