A homage to the resistance of the people of Ukraine In September the city of Coimbra hosted once again the Estação Imagem Award and the associated festival jointly organised with the City Council. The city thus renews its support to the only competition in the Iberian Peninsula dedicated to photojournalism.

Thought as a manifestation of solidarity with Ukraine and the resistance of the Ukrainian people to the invasion by the Russian army, the current edition was dedicated to the work of Ukrainian photojournalists. Among the six exhibitions in the festival’s programme, five were about the war in Ukraine, with four of them by Ukrainian photographers and another by the famous American photojournalist James Nachtwey. Finally, the sixth showcased the work produced by the recipient and winner of the Grant Estação Imagem 2020 Coimbra.

The Unvanquished, produced by Nachtwey for The New Yorker magazine, documents the barbaric invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. This is a unique exhibition that the photographer offered to Estação Imagem and which he put together for the Coimbra festival and he also guided us through it in a tour at Sala da Cidade on the 17th of September. More than a multi-awarded photographer, recognised and honoured around the world, James Nachtwey is a living legend of photojournalism. For the author, for the work and for the theme, this is the exhibition that many museums, galleries and art venues around the world would like to host in the present.

The four exhibitions by Ukrainian photographers were: Bucha’s Red Winter by Daniel Berehulak, a weeks-long relay on the war crimes committed in Bucha; The Siege of Mariupol, by Evgeniy Maloletka and Mystyslav Chernov, a photographer and a video operator who reported during the siege and on the massacres inflicted by Russian troops on the southern Ukrainian port city; The last stand, by the combatant-photographer Dmytro Kozatsky, documents the 80 days of the Azov Regiment resistance in the labyrinthine Azovstal steel plant, the “place of my life and my death” as the now prisoner of war accounted; Exodus is a portrait of the flight of thousands of Ukrainians, mainly women and children, brought to us through the eyes of 14 Ukrainian photographers. Interior, by Ricardo Lopes, showcases the result of Lopes’ project, the recipient and winner of the Grant Estação Imagem 2020—2022 Coimbra: Lopes looks into the phenomenon of depopulation affecting the central region of Portugal since the 1960’s. All the exhibitions opened in tandem in various venues across the city on the 13th of September and could be visited until the 6th of November as part of the Estação Imagem 2022 Coimbra Award programme.

The international jury met in this city of the Mondego between the 14th and 16th of September. Chairing the jury, David Furst, curator and former International Photo Editor for The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize for Photography four years in a row, The World Press Photo of the Year, Pictures of the Year International, and Visa d’Or, among others. The other members of the jury were: Daniel Berehulak – two Pulitzer prizes, six World Press Photo, two Photographer Of The Year awards by Pictures of the Year International, among others – and Newsha Tavakolian – multi-award-winning photographer and member of Magnum Photos and whose work is featured in the private collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the British Museum, Sackler Gallery, and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. The jury selected all the award winners including the recipient of the Grant Estação Imagem Coimbra 2022. The competition comprised eight categories – News, Contemporary Affairs, Everyday Life, Sports, Art and Shows, Environment, Portrait Series, and Photography of the Year. The jury selected the overall winner of the Estação Imagem 2022 Coimbra Award from among all the reports submitted to the competition. The announcement of winners and awards ceremony took place on the 17th of September at Teatro da Cerca de São Bernardo, with the presence of the jury members and participants of the closing conference. In the afternoon we had very engaging visits by the authors to the exhibitions The unvanquised, with James NachTwey and Bucha’s Red Winter, with Daniel Berehulak and a conference with James Nacthwey, Daniel Berehulak, and João Silva, chaired by Nicolau Santos. 

In addition to the exhibitions, this year’s programme also includes guided and commented tours to all exhibitions (September 14—17), and, in the auditorium at Mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Velha, the screening of the three award winning films of FIKE 2021, the Évora International Short Film Festival whose Documentary prize was awarded by a jury member of ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM (September 13-17).