Portrait nominee

In Transition, a mother is trying to provide solace to her son whom she knows will soon die. The mother is my mother and the son is my younger brother. A month before cancer took my brother’s life, I asked him and my mother to pose for their final portrait together. My brother is resting his body on my mother’s lap and she is caressing the man to whom she gave birth but now must see through his final days. In this image, there is sadness—the certainty of an imminent loss of a life – and the beauty of my mother’s compassion and love as she holds the plastic bag that has collected the poisonous liquids drained from his body, and as she hopes and asks for a little more time with her son behind what seems to be a crying wall.

Photography has been always Manuel’s passion. He had to earn a living from a young age. Originally from Mexico, Manuel started to study digital photography in 2009 in Guatemala City, graduating in 2014 from Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts in Washington D.C. where he currently resides. His main body of work focuses on exploring the urban landscape, the integration of the face and body into fine art, and fashion photography. In Washington, Manuel joined in 2013 the International Photographic Society (IPS) and was rookie of the year in the 2013-14 season and Photographer of the Year in 2015-16. He was awarded the 2016-2017 and 2017-18 Washington DC Government Art & Humanities Fellowship.

Manuel has done several solo and group exhibits in Atlanta, Guatemala City, Miami, Washington DC, New York City, London and Italy’s 2018 Chianciano Art Biennale where he won the Leonardo 1st Prize for Photography and Digital Art. In 2019, he was awarded the 2nd Prize in Photography at IPS, and at London Art Biennale, and the 3rd Prize Focus on the Story at Washington DC International Photo Festival. In 2020, Manuel was a winner of LensCulture Critics’ Choice. Several of his images have been published in