honorable mention
Javier sanchez-monge escardo spain
Photo © Javier sanchez-monge escardo
title
PRAYING TO THE BUDDHA
The acid attack carried on him was so severe that it left him totally disfigured and he earns his life by begging, which provides him with enough money to maintain him and his partner, who passed away one year after this image was taken.
Some of the acid victim’s abilities (resilience) to properly adapt to stress and adversity come from the capacity of relating positively to other human beings and being able of developing love relationships.
Seeking for a religious interpretation of their fate can signify a considerable help for some acid survivors, and in the case of Buddhist countries such a terrible event could be understood as the expiation of a bad Karma (the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences).
Although this explanation could be satisfying to some as it will serve to reestablish the karmic equilibrium, there is also a major drawback, which is the social stigmatization resulting from it, in which the aggression towards the victim would have been more or less justified, since it resulted as a consequence of bad past actions. A more radical interpretation of the Karma doctrine could result in a stronger social stigmatization and isolation, in which the victim could be judged as deserving such a punishment for actions which could have supposedly occurred in a past life.
Acid attacks remain one of the cruelest assaults a human being can inflict upon another and are aimed to disfigure, maim, torture or kill the victims. The consequences can range from a permanent physical and psychological damage to a social stigmatization and discrimination of the victim as a result of a severe body disfigurement.
His works have been published on El País, La Vanguardia, El Confidencial, El Día, El Diario de Navarra, and about climate change through the Spanish agency Agencia EFE. Regularly he publishes on Periodistas en Español, addressed to Spanish speaking audiences.
More recently Javier Sánchez-Monge Escardó has been awarded the IPA Spanish Edition title of Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year (2017), Nominee by the LUCIE FOUNDATION for his works on climate change among four other international candidates to become the Deeper Perspective Photographer of the year 2017 and his works on Climate change were shown at the Dale Carnegie Hall in New York on October 2017.
Some of his prints have been exhibited at international photo Exhibits on behalf of the LUCIE FOUNDATION ( At the Mayors Summit , for the UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE 2015 -Addressing Climate Change-) or also on behalf of the Lucie Foundation on the MOPLA (Month of Photography Los Angeles). As well on behalf of the ALFRED FRIED AWARDS at the UNESCO building in Paris, and throughout different countries, such as in 2016, when travelling as part of the “Best of the Show” travelling photo exhibit organized by the International Photography Awards (IPA).
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entry description
An acid survivor and his partner pray to the Buddha before a shrine in Cambodia.The acid attack carried on him was so severe that it left him totally disfigured and he earns his life by begging, which provides him with enough money to maintain him and his partner, who passed away one year after this image was taken.
Some of the acid victim’s abilities (resilience) to properly adapt to stress and adversity come from the capacity of relating positively to other human beings and being able of developing love relationships.
Seeking for a religious interpretation of their fate can signify a considerable help for some acid survivors, and in the case of Buddhist countries such a terrible event could be understood as the expiation of a bad Karma (the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences).
Although this explanation could be satisfying to some as it will serve to reestablish the karmic equilibrium, there is also a major drawback, which is the social stigmatization resulting from it, in which the aggression towards the victim would have been more or less justified, since it resulted as a consequence of bad past actions. A more radical interpretation of the Karma doctrine could result in a stronger social stigmatization and isolation, in which the victim could be judged as deserving such a punishment for actions which could have supposedly occurred in a past life.
Acid attacks remain one of the cruelest assaults a human being can inflict upon another and are aimed to disfigure, maim, torture or kill the victims. The consequences can range from a permanent physical and psychological damage to a social stigmatization and discrimination of the victim as a result of a severe body disfigurement.
about the photographer
avier Sánchez-Monge Escardó is a Spanish photographer and philosopher born in 1965 in Madrid who has travelled and lived throughout different countries in an effort to document both humanitarian and environmental causes, specially dedicating himself in the past two years to the issue of climate change and to the man-made era of the anthropocene, among other issues of humanitarian nature, such as the Rohingya refugees.His works have been published on El País, La Vanguardia, El Confidencial, El Día, El Diario de Navarra, and about climate change through the Spanish agency Agencia EFE. Regularly he publishes on Periodistas en Español, addressed to Spanish speaking audiences.
More recently Javier Sánchez-Monge Escardó has been awarded the IPA Spanish Edition title of Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year (2017), Nominee by the LUCIE FOUNDATION for his works on climate change among four other international candidates to become the Deeper Perspective Photographer of the year 2017 and his works on Climate change were shown at the Dale Carnegie Hall in New York on October 2017.
Some of his prints have been exhibited at international photo Exhibits on behalf of the LUCIE FOUNDATION ( At the Mayors Summit , for the UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE 2015 -Addressing Climate Change-) or also on behalf of the Lucie Foundation on the MOPLA (Month of Photography Los Angeles). As well on behalf of the ALFRED FRIED AWARDS at the UNESCO building in Paris, and throughout different countries, such as in 2016, when travelling as part of the “Best of the Show” travelling photo exhibit organized by the International Photography Awards (IPA).
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