PCP congratulates Pinoy Photojourn for winning SND Award

Another Filipino photographer has gained international recognition, this time from the prestigious Society for News Design (SND).

Raffy Lerma’s intimate photo of a woman cradling her partner’s lifeless body, a victim of an apparent vigilante killing brought about by the government’s war on drugs, won silver medal for Photography-Breaking News.

The photo, published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s front page on July 24, 2016, has triggered an outcry over the Duterte administration’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs.“

The gripping image stops you immediately and pulls you into studying its details, which make you feel like you are witnessing a tragedy in person: their bare feet, the sidewalk, the signs,” the SND judges said.

“The photograph is perfectly composed, the lighting is gorgeous, and the emotion is potent,” they added.

In an article dated Aug. 4, 2016, the Time even wrote about Lerma’s photograph for “giving the war on drugs in the Philippines a human face”.

Lerma is among the lensmen documenting the nightly killings of suspected drug pushers and users in the country.

Lerma, a member of the Photojournalism Center of the Philippines for more than a decade represented the Philippines at the World Press Photo-Asia Europe Foundation Forum for Young Photographers held in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2004. 

“Lerma’s work shows how photojournalists serve as witnesses on the different issues affecting out society through the stories he covers,” said Gigie Cruz, PCP Chairperson.

Aside from a Fine Arts degree at the UP Diliman, he also received fellowship in the Konrad Adenauer Asia Center for Journalism’s diploma in photojournalism at the Ateneo de Manila University.

In December 2016, Lerma has just won the Most Outstanding Photograph for his work titled “Hungry Kids” from the Save the Children Media Awards.