the mexican photographer Christopher Rogel Blanquet (Mexico City, 1984) was announced this Wednesday as the winner of the World Press Photo Award 2023 in the Long Term Projects category for his work called “Beautiful Poison”.
The winning photo, captured in a humble home in Villa Guerrero, State of Mexico, shows Sebastián, an 18-year-old boy who was born with hydrocephalus, helped by his father, Don Tino, to take a bath.
When the news broke, Cristopher Rogel shared on his social networks: “When they told me that I had won the prize, I was asleep, the news surprised me a lot. I didn’t believe her. I thank all those who have accompanied me in this work and in my process. Photography has been very noble to me and I am very moved by this recognition, it feels beautiful, but that is not why it is more important than the stories of the people who trusted me. Many thanks to my dad who inspired me to do this job more than 20 years ago and to my mom for putting a camera in my hands when I was a child.”
Christopher Rogel Blanquet is a documentary photographer and journalist, member of the National System of Creators of Mexico since 2021, whose work specializes in coverage of social conflicts, torture, migration, human rights, vulnerable groups and natural disasters. He believes that photography is not only a powerful medium to tell other people’s stories, but a window to communicate what he sees through the eyes of others.
His work includes coverage of self-defense groups in Michoacán, the forced disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa and children working in the poppy fields in the mountains of Guerrero. He has also documented Syrian war refugees and the Ukrainian war.
In 2021 he received the Eugene Smith Scholarship, 2nd place in the International Photography Awards, Deeper Perspective. In addition, he was awarded the POY Award of Excellence for the same project at the 2023 World Press Photo Contest.
Rogel Blanquet won the International Documentary Photography Contest of the ENS of Colombia (National Union School) in 2015 for his photo-documentary Los niños del opio, and collaborated in the multimedia project Desaparecidos, which won the Ortega y Gasset Award (2016).
