Greenpeace Photo Award

The Canadian Ian Willms and the Argentine Pablo E. Piovano are the winners of the Greenpeace Photo Award. The prize supports the realization of photo documentation of relevant environmental problems and is awarded since 2014 every two years by Greenpeace Switzerland and Greenpeace Germany. In their long-term projects, the two photographers deal with the current issues of land rights, climate change and the impact of oil exploitation on indigenous communities.

Pablo E. Piovano (* 1981) documents decades of land conflicts in Patagonia. In the Araucania region of Chile, the Mapuche defend their land rights as Native Americans – even against the government that accuses them of being terrorists. They fight against the destruction of their livelihoods and claim the right to live their centuries-old traditions. In his photographs, Piovano contrasts the unique beauty, biodiversity and cultural diversity of Patagonia with the brutal struggle for its future.

In his project As Long as the Sun Shines, the photographer Ian Willms (* 1985) shows the consequences of oil sands exploitation in Alberta, Canada. Against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, enormous clearing areas tear deep wounds into the land. The oil from the tar sands is washed with massive amounts of water, energy and chemicals – an “ecological disaster of the highest explosiveness” (Lars Lindemann, picture editor magazine GEO). For more than eight years, Ian Willms photographed the connections between economic recovery, global climate change and social injustice to indigenous people.

In Cooperation with Greenpeace e.V.

Photo: © Pablo E. Piovano