The ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM | MORA Award, the only initiative of this kind in Portugal, exists since 2010 and realizes its 5th edition in 2014, principally, due to the vision of Mora Town Council, whose important support, from the very beginning, has been fundamental for the divulgation and development of photojournalism in Portugal. The ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM | MORA Award counts with the important sponsorship by
Agência Lusa and the support of the Portuguese Center of Photography. RTP (Portuguese Radio Television), Lusa (National News Agencie), the daily newspaper Público and weekly magazine Expansão, from Angola, are the media partners. Since its first edition, in 2010, there have been submitted 2085 reports by 678 photojournalists, totaling 24,722 photographs. The Prize is open to the participation of photojournalists of Portuguese citizenship, of the Portuguese-speaking African Countries and from Galicia, as well as foreigners residing in these countries. Paulo Pimenta, Nelson d’Aires, António Pedrosa and Bruno Simões Castanheira have been the winners of the ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM | MORA Award. Ricardo Meireles, Nelson Garrido, João Carvalho Pina, Nacho Doce, Gonçalo Rosa da Silva, Nuno André Ferreira, Guillaume Pazat, Jorge Monteiro, Enric Vives Rubio, Carlos Palma, José Carlos Carvalho, António Pedro Santos, Augusto Brázio, Artur Machado, Martim Ramos, Valter Vinagre, Tiago Miranda, Daniel Rocha, Leonel de Castro, Mário Cruz, Miguel Proença, José Ferreira, Rui Gaudêncio, Rui M. Oliveira, Miguel Riopa, Tommaso Rada, José Antunes, Vlad Sokhin, Filipe Branquinho, Adriano Miranda, Pedro Cunha, Ricardo Meireles, Pedro Nunes, Pedro Armestre, Patrícia de Melo Oliveira, Pedro Elias, Bruno Simão, Octávio Passos, Gabriel Tizón, Mário Macilau, Alfredo Cunha and Daniel Rodrigues have been awarded in various categories; thus representing six different nationalities – Portuguese, Spanish (Galicia), Mozambican, French, Italian and Russian. The jury of the prize is exclusively composed by prestigious international personalities in photojournalism, which integrate publications such as the newspapers The New York Times, Le Monde and La Reppublica; magazines Stern, Geo and The New Yorker, as well as agencies Reuters, Magnum, Associated Press, Noor, AFP, VII. The jury attributes the ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM | MORA Award and designates the winners of the following seven categories – News, Contemporary Issues, Daily Life, Portrait, Sports, Art and Entertainment, and Environment -, among all the reports to tender. Jury members of the 4 editions:
Ayperi Karabuda Ecer, president in 2010:
“This prize has the particularity of its focus on report and narrative power. The unity of style and relevance of the topics were considered as determinant elements in the choice of the members of the jury. The lack of one of them led us to exclude some works with stupendous images. I arrived in Mora, avoiding in the trip the ashes of the Icelandic volcano, with the firm hope to find among the competing photographs the subtleties of tone that I so admire in Portuguese literature. While not fiction, the images I saw tore horizons.”
Other members: Daphné Anglès, Magdalena Herrera, Francesco Zizola. Walter Astrada, president in 2011:
“With the choice of the winning report, related to a case of bullying in a school in Mirandela (Portugal), the jury aims to show that, while also covering a news story, it is possible to create a complete, well edited story in a personal style. The winner’s work shows how if the photographer is persistent, he will always be able to assemble a good story. In general, the jury showed itself very pleased with the selection of photographers, having detected only some problems with edition, a universal issue and not only of Portuguese photographers.”
Other members: Ayperi Ecer, Laura Serani, Marizilda Cruppe, Volker Lensch. Emilio Morenatti, president in 2012:
“We must adapt to the changes that are imposed by the new media platforms, and I believe the only way is to reinvent every day, not forgetting two key elements: ethics and quality. Our work should be unquestionable from an ethical point of view, and must overcome the ordinary quality of the millions of photos that daily circulate in the global network. António Pedrosa’s photos, in his report ‘Iraquianos’ (‘Iraquis’), are a good example of classic photojournalism and without additives, describing well the life, drama and atmosphere of people suffering of social exclusion. Other members: Frédérique Babin, Patrick Baz, Marion Duran, Arianna Rinaldo. Elisabeth Biondi, president in 2013:
“Overall, we were impressed with the high standard of the submissions, especially in the categories of Contemporary Issues and Daily Life. The bankruptcy or significant cuts in a number of newspapers and magazines implies that there are fewer places where photographers can publish their storys, and/or that these professionals have lost the safety of their jobs and services. This is a disturbing reality. All this constitutes a determinant reason for Estação Imagem and the town of Mora to continue to work in the name of photography in Portugal, and that the jury pay them tribute.”
Other members: Jim Casper, Mauricio Lima, Paul Hanna
