JotaCruz wins Prizes in First Photonature Contest

By Amauris Betancourt.

Juan Miguel Cruz Gómez, JotaCruz, won the first and second prizes in the First Photonature Contest, Holguín 2009, while Raciel Cruz Peña, from the new generation of photographers, got the third award, made public during the inauguration ceremony at the Electa Arenal ward from the city Art Center. The series Life in the Birama Wet Lowland, by JotaCruz, depicts –in excellent compositions, from different angles and in the right moment- different places and species from Birama Wet Lowland at the province of Granma. Biodiversity, the second rewarded piece by the same creator, approaches, in portraits, endemic birds from the area of Cupeycillo, located at the municipality of Gibara. The photographer feasts on the beauty and charisma of these endemic birds turning the area into a meeting place for scientists, photographers, painters, naturalists and birders.

Raciel Cruz Peña got the third award with Equilibrium, where he goes beyond the natural hedonism of our Cuban fauna and the use of good photographic technique, to a symbiotic message of communion between human beings and animals on Earth. The jury board, presided by Nils Navarro and made up besides of photographers Amaurys González and Juan Pablo Carreras, awarded too four Mentions: Carlos Alberto Ferrá for A day after, and to Luis Catalá Gurri, William Lucas Rodríguez and Alexander Sánchez Rivas for their works Hope Nets, The alert spectator and First Steps, respectively.

Nils Navarro, the photocontest president, decided to acknowled the support from Trimagen and Photo Service in the printing process. He also stated his desire to have a yearly Photonature Contest to call society’s eye on the protection of the environment and the Cuban flora and fauna.

The exhibit hosts 61 photographic works from 32 professional and amateur photographers including visual art students. It will be open to the public for a month and will be shown next in Gibara during The Community Festival “Protecting Birds” from May 18 to 24 sponsored by several national and international institutions.