Jury 2010

Beatriz Santos Pruneda

EDITOR, MEXICO DESCONOCIDO

Beatriz Santos Pruneda, editor of México Desconocido for five years now, has been moving from place to place, recording life with her lens like a reporter since 1987. “I keep on traveling, taking photos, writing. And currently, with new radio-podcasts, I can reach a much wider audience. I invite people to read, to know, to live new experiences - and I get great satisfaction out of what I do with the magazine.”
 
What does she love about photography? “I love it when a picture really just makes you want to be in a different place – and then when you really go to that place, or it makes you do something special. Even a photo’s power to make you dream is incredible.” Considering that her favorite type of photography is lifestyle, the subject is just as important as the form. “A great photo for me requires a good balance between the emotion it conveys and the technique it shows.”
 
Where does she see the balance between recording an image faithfully and enhancing it to make it as expressive as possible? “Photographic manipulation has radically changed the final product. Nowadays photographers must be updated with the different applications involved in their entire work. Now the end-result must be perfect because there are multiple tools to help you do it, while always keeping the image real.”
 
Beatriz also sees definite development in action and sports photography. “I think the viewer’s perspective is involved much more – they can feel that they are inside the picture. Photos these days have more fantasy involved, they have a different management of light and they use angles that expand to involve the viewer far more. Our extreme photographers for example experiment much more with their pictures - even with those not tied to any particular adventure sport. The photographers are much more purposeful, they don’t settle for less and always go further.”
 
Beatriz is proud to represent Mexico in Red Bull Illume’s international jury. “Red Bull Illume’s photographs from 2007 always surprised me! I’m looking forward to participating in a contest that shows the fearlessness, technique and self-improvement involved in action and adventure sports photography. It’s like admiring the whole world through one single window, watching how the adventure photographer lives, dreams and achieves his great results. The contest’s images are like living through the eyes of a photographer.”

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