UNEATLANTICO Journalism students, together with Silvia Aparicio, Vice-Rector for Academic Organisation and Teaching Staff, Olga Agüero, Dean of the College of Journalists and lecturer at the university and Helena Garay, Head of Cultural Outreach, took part in a meeting with the international photojournalist Celestino Arce through a guided tour of the exhibition of his photographic work on the war in Ukraine.
The exhibition is a journey through Ukraine and Russia in the current context of war and is on display in the CASYC hall, organised by the Professional Association of Cantabrian Photojournalists and the Caja Cantabria Foundation.
The initiative, organised by the Association of Journalists of Cantabria, has allowed the students to talk to the photographer – who has won international awards and has worked for several agencies – about his experience as a photojournalist in places of conflict from a professional and vital point of view.
His work has led him to portray conflicts such as the Nagorno Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza for two years or the war in Ukraine since 2015 on both sides of the conflict, until the latest massive invasion by Russia.
For an hour and a half, the students asked about the situation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the difficulties of working in hostile environments with deaths and war, technical questions about photography and the equipment he travels with, and how to develop a professional career in international photojournalism.
Arce shared anecdotes and experiences and recommended them to work with truth and respect for the victims and protagonists of the tragedies that he portrays with a particular and expressive graphic language that tries to avoid the obvious and look at what lies behind each bombing.
The meeting with this international professional strengthens and promotes the training of the future journalists of UNEATLANTICO through the experience and advice of recognised professionals and referents of information and image.