Yael Martínez

Yael Martínez is a visual artist from Guerrero, Mexico, whose work addresses fractured communities in his home country. He often works symbolically to evoke the sense of emptiness, absence, and pain experienced by those affected by organised crime in the region. The artist defines his work as an essay in images on the resilience of those who have been touched by violence at some point in their lives—people and communities who inhabit and resist a territory–space–body that is, and has been, violated by the violence afflicting the country. He is interested in portraying Mexico and Latin America as symbolic spaces, lands where violence penetrates everything and crosses both the physical and spiritual realms of those who inhabit them. A land that becomes an analogy for a body, a home, a person, a family or a country.

His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.

He has been a nominated member of Magnum Photos since 2020 and is part of Mexico’s National System of Art Creators. He won the World Press Photo regional award for North and Central America in the Open Format category in 2022. He received the Eugene Smith Award in 2019 and is a fellow of the Photography and Social Justice Programme at the Magnum Foundation. In 2019 he won second place at World Press Photo in the Long-Term Projects category.