LENS CULTURE PORTRAIT AWARD WINNER JUROR PICK 2018

After discovering the discarded photographic archive of the Colombian El Espacio newspaper, Andrés Orjuela made the decision to salvage the photographs and utilize them within his own practice. The images, mostly reportage, depict criminal trials, contraband, violent arrests, and candid portraits. In Orjuela’s hand, the images have been decontextualized, re-sequenced and colorized, using Marshall’s pigment. Some of the images are reminiscent of prayer cards, with the careful painting over the portraits, animating anonymous figures. The original documentation of factual events is subverted and inflected with a singular narrative that is blended with fiction. Orjuela’s investigation into this archive is transformative and compelling.

SIOBHÁN BOHNACKER

Senior Photo EditorThe New Yorker

United States