Mexico City, July 14 (EFE) .- The traditional exhibition that shows the best of photojournalism in the world World Press Photo 2022 returned this Thursday to the Franz Mayer Museum in the Mexican capital to expose the importance of responsible journalism, in a context particularly violent for the said profession in the country, with 12 journalists murdered so far this year.

“The goal of an exhibition like this in a place like Mexico, where freedom of the press is a very big problem, (is that) we want to invite the public to read the news, to be informed and to learn more about the projects,” he assured Martha Echevarría, representative of World Press Photo and curator of the exhibition.

In the presence of Canadian photojournalist Amber Bracken, whose photo won the title of World Press Photo of the Year, the director of the museum, Alejandra de la Paz, highlighted the progress made on issues of inclusion in the competition, whose exhibition will be open to the public from July 15 to October 2.

“This year there were nine women winners, the photo of the year is that of a woman, there is a lot of work to be done for women to be present in many more sectors, photojournalism is one of the spaces that move forward,” explained De la paix.

Last April, they announced the 122 selected photographs that are on display today in the traveling exhibition, chosen from 64,823 requests from 4,066 photojournalists from 130 countries.

Bracken’s photograph commemorates the deaths of Indigenous children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School through the perspective of a series of crosses at the graves of the deceased in which one cross stands out in the foreground wearing an orange girl’s dress, while being born rainbow by its side.

The Canadian asked to always keep in mind that journalistic work is based on people’s stories and not on their aesthetic value, so she hopes her work can be seen in a more complex way.

“The stories we tell shouldn’t be reduced to objects, they are about people,” Amber said at the conference.

Among the winners is also the Mexican photographer Yael Martínez, from the southern state of Guerrero, with the series of images entitled “La flor del tiempo”, an artistic work that exposes the indigenous communities forced to cultivate opium.

The photographer could not be present at the press conference dedicated to the presentation of the exhibition, but De la Paz assured that he hopes that during the duration of the exhibition, Martínez will be able to participate in activities with the public.

A NEW FORMAT

This year, the World Press Photo has changed the operational form of the competition by eliminating categories in the photographs and by rewarding at the regional level the work of photojournalists from all over the world with the intention of representing the specific social problems of each geographical space.

“It gives us a more local perspective of knowing the region,” deepened the curator, who pointed out that among the themes that predominate are the climate crisis, social protests, as well as stories of resistance from indigenous communities.

The museum’s educational program is also made up of talks and workshops, starting with the conversation Bracken and Mexican journalist Daniela Pastrana will have on July 16.