Pep Bonet

Pep Bonet (*1974) spanish award-winning filmmaker and photographer receives the photography award of the Michael Horbach Stiftung in 2015 who has travelled extensively to Haito, Cuba, Honduras and Sierra Leone amongst others. He captured profound moments that represent the unbalanced world in which we live. His longer-term projects focus on African issues, with his most well known project being “Faith in Chaos”, a photo essay on the aftermath of the war in Sierra Leone. Pep's ongoing work around the globe on HIV/Aids has led to several photography books and many exhibitions worldwide.

Pep’s work has been recognized with many awards. He won the Kodak Young Photographer of the Year in 2003 and the Luchetta Foundation in Trieste nominated him the best press photographer of the year in 2004. He was a recipient of the W. Eugene Smith Humanistic Grant in Photography in 2005. He has won three World Press Photo Awards in 2007, 2009 and together with the Altamar team in 2013.
Pep has published several books and his work has been exhibited across the world.

THE CULT OF SAN LAZARO, CUBA 

8.November - 30. December 2015

San Lazaro (‘el viejo’), also called Babalu Aye, is the most venerated saint in Cuba, an amalgam of a Christian saint and a Yoruba god worshiped for centuries by Afrocubans. Every year on San Lazaro’s Day (17 December), thousands of devotees from all over Cuba make a pilgrimage to the Santuario del Rincon, in Santiago de la Vega. A number of them are sick people and beggars, and they go to the little village 30 kilometers from Havana for different reasons, offering differing expressions of their religious feeling. They make the journey on their knees, crawling, or barefoot, pulling large stones or heavy chains tied to their bodies – for days or weeks on end. Along the way devotees collect money, which they hand over to the Santuario del Rincon on arrival. The money goes to help the San Lazaro Leprosy hospital, which is located in the sanctuary itself.

Hell & Heaven: 1 May – 16 June 2015

The exhibition Hell & Heaven shows a selection of Pep Bonet’s recent works. A photo book also named Hell & Heaven with a narrower selection of images was created in 2012. It is part of a series of 11 books by photographers of NOOR, an agency that was co-founded by Pep Bonet in 2007. NOOR is a a non proftit foundation uniting a select group of highly accomplished photojournalists and documentary storytellers focusing on contemporary global issues.

The exhibition includes photographs by Pep Bonet from several projects, which are complemented by four films.