en Pe'trett auf fäaschmiete
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© Jordi Ruiz Cirera,
2011-12.
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And the prize goes to – a
portrait of a Mennonite youth.
Yes, in fact, the prestigious Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize
2012 has gone to London-based, Spanish photographer Jordi Ruiz Cirera for his
hauntingly beautiful 2011 photographic portrait of a young Bolivian Mennonite,
Magarita Teichroeb.
According to Marina Vaizay, the 2012 Taylor
Wessing Prize recognizes some 60 recent photographs chosen from among more than
5,000 entries by 2,000 photographers in a blind jurying process. Cicera’s photograph of the 26-year-old
Teichroeb won first prize and a cash award of €15,000, 00 (₤12,000
or about US $24,000.00).
Cicera responded to the prize with, "Estoy encantado de la vida"
or “I am delighted with life,” adding
that he hoped winning the respected prize would help open doors to a career in
media photography. Also according to lainformacion,com, a Spanish-language
press source, Cicera spent time amongst the Bolivian Mennonites in 2010 and 2011
developing a photographic essay story, “Menonos”
(see link below) that was then published in the European print media.
Now, as the British press goes, well, let’s
just say that in our excitement over the prize, English art critic Marina
Vaizay might be forgiven for misidentifying Teichroeb as the member of a
mysterious German sect “similar to
the Amish of Pennsylvania,” rather than the member of a distinctive Dutch and
Swiss ethnic community that would include
the Amish of Pennsylvania, or the misnomer that the Mennonites settled into
Bolivia “centuries ago,” rather than understanding their settlement there as
post-World War II refugees from Europe and as technological separatists from
North America. In appreciation for Cirera’s giftedness and Vaizay’s attention to
this topic, I hope I can shed some additional light on the background.
Lainformacion.com
speaks of Bolivia’s Mennonite’s as being roughly 50,000 in population and
having descended from Anabaptists who left Germany in the 16th
Century (perhaps the source of Vaizay’s errors).
