The Foto Awards

Esmeralda Estrada

Hi, my name is Esmeralda Estrada. I am 16 years old and I am a junior at Hesperia High School. Some adjectives that describe me are quiet, a bit picky, and fun fact I am a Virgo. Growing up I was always picking up cameras from here and there. I always feel so alive with a camera in my hand and the best part about photography is I can choose what I want to see. It’s one of the things that is always able to keep me happy and also it's the reason I make images/art.

Someone who I get a lot of inspiration from is my mother. She is a single mom, works hard, and plays two figures in my life. She sacrificed a lot for my sister and me and we love her for that. She pushes me to be better so one goal that I'm setting for myself is to get better at my portrait photography.

I always feel so alive with a camera in my hand and the best part about photography is I can choose what I want to see. It's one of the things that is always able to keep me happy and it's also the reason I make images and art.

Hannah Kozak

Hannah Kozak was born to a Polish father and a Guatemalan mother in Los Angeles, California. At the age of ten, she was given a Kodak Brownie camera by her father, Sol, a survivor of eight Nazi forced labor camps and began instinctively capturing images of dogs, flowers, family and friends that felt honest and real. Hannah has turned the camera on herself, her life and her world. She continues to look for those things that feel honest and real, using her camera as a means of exploring feelings and emotions. After decades of standing in for someone else, she now is in control of her destiny and vision.
Hannah creates psychological and autobiographical photographs. Her subjects are the people and places that touch her emotionally. She has been photographing people and places for five decades. Photography has the power to heal and to help us through difficult periods, something Hannah Kozak knows first hand from personal experience.

LINKS
• Short Listed by the Lucie Foundation as Best First Photo Book of 2020
• Women Photograph: Photobooks of 2020
• Here Are 20 Photo Books That Brought Us Joy In The Very Exhausting Year of 2020
• Buzzfeed: Photos Show The Devastating Long-Term Effects of Domestic Assault

KIMBERLY ESPINOSA

From the community of Koreatown, Kimberly Espinosa is a Zapotec community youth organizer and artist whose work reflects daily lived experiences, including identity, family history, and community.

Growing up in Koreatown has been a beautiful experience for Kimberly to connect and honor their ancestral roots by sharing community spaces with other Indigenous relatives to share dialogue and build collective initiatives. She is currently a participant of the Koreatown Storytelling Program, where she prepares to interview elders and continues to develop their passion for photojournalism.

Kimberly intends to continue engaging in oral history and storytelling by documenting the stories of their relatives and community through creative mediums.

Kimberly is currently a photographer & writer for the Koreatown Storytelling Program: genbygen.org

SMITA SHARMA

Smita Sharma is a photojournalist based in Delhi who has documented victims of gender-based violence, sexual crimes and human trafficking in the Global South through long-form visual narratives. Smita is a TED fellow and an IWMF reporting fellow and recipient of Amnesty International Media award for photojournalism and One World Media Award for her short film “Rebel with a Cause”. Smita is committed to representing people with dignity and uses visceral images to emphasize their humanity. Her work has been exhibited and shown globally including at the UN Headquarters in New York.

I am currently working on making a photo book with Foto Evidence Publishing https://fotoevidence.com/ for which I am looking for support. The book will feature my long term project documenting cross border minor sex trafficking between India and Bangladesh and will be used as an educational material to be distributed in school and university libraries, NGOs and with law enforcement agencies. There NEEDS to be more personalized storytelling about sex trafficking. Not just high level statistics, but stories about the people affected with enduring testimony and concrete visual evidence that can trigger a social change and help to solve the problem. We will be launching a kickstarter to help fund the book.

LINKS
• www.time.com/6075971/commercial-surrogacy-ban-india/
•www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/stolen-lives-harrowing-story-of-two-girls-sold-into-sexual-slavery-feature
• www.photoethics.org/content/2020/11/24/interview-with-smita-sharma-on-stolen-lives

VERONICA MONJARAS

Veronica Monjaras is a 19-year old photographer based in the Los Angeles area. She loves fashion and portrait photography, and capturing candid images. With each click of the shutter, she attempts to capture the feelings of people through her lens -- movements and moments.

Apart from photography, Veronica also enjoys watercolor, sketching, and studying languages. In the future, she hopes to be an artist that inspires the next generation of teenage girls to capture their own joy.

THALIA GOCHEZ

Thalia Gochez is a self taught Salvadoran Mexican-American photographer, creative director and fashion stylist. Thalia’s work strives to amplify all BIPOC identities through honest story-telling imagery. Her creative process is a community effort and aims to lead it with intention empowerment and integrity.

LINKS
• @dazed 2021 100 talent list 
• Project featured in ‘Love Thy neighbor’ section for @officemagazinenyc