Join us in congratulating Ángela Ponce, the recipient of the $5,000 PhotoVogue Festival Grant for the local open call ‘Latin America Panorama.’
Ángela Ponce (among the 40 artists selected to take part in the exhibition ‘Latin America Panorama’ at the PhotoVogue Festival in March 2025) receives the $5,000 grant for her project ‘Guardians of the glaciers,’ portraying the Quechua community living in the Quelccaya Ice Cap, the largest tropical glacier in the world. Due to global greenhouse gas emissions, the Quelccaya Ice Cap is melting and receding by 60 meters a year and will disappear in the next 30 years if the emissions aren t reduced. Through ancestral knowledge and rituals, the Quechua community is trying to preserve the glacial cap and its ecosystem. Ponce captures the quiet strength of the Quelccaya Ice Cap inhabitants, and their profound kinship with the iced environment that, in Ponce s pictures, is never flat nor monochromatic. The grant she received will provide valuable support in developing her future projects and deepen her research in crucial matters such as the ones that unfolded in ‘Guardians of the glaciers’.
How did you become involved in this project?
My interest in researching more about glaciers began in 2021, for an assignment on climate change in the Peruvian Andes.
I arrived at the Quelccaya glacier with the intention of doing an exploration looking to focus mainly on the retreat, but I found a community that depended entirely on the glacier and that protect it following ancestral traditions of the Inca culture. This motivated me to rethink the impact of climate change and that we do not all feel it in the same way, there are people who are affected on the front lines and directly.
How have you collaborated with the Quechua community throughout this project?
The project began with a small team, which evolved with the chapters and became participatory, since the people of the community were not only the "protagonists" with their testimonies about what it is like to witness the slow death of this giant. They are our main guides to the glacier and an essential part of the logistics of the trips, as the main experts on the territory,
Due to the dissemination of the project, spaces have been generated where community representatives can explain the situation of the glacier with the images. There is a joint work of many people involved.
What impact do you hope this project will have on raising awareness about the melting glaciers and climate change?
The project is an invocation to look at the glaciers of Latin America, there are very remote places like this one where the retreat is accelerating. The Quelccaya was the largest tropical glacier in the world and is at serious risk of disappearing in the coming years if no action is taken on global climate change.
Can you share any specific stories or experiences from the Quechua community that have deeply influenced your work?
The walk to reach the snow-capped mountain is hard, due to the altitude (between 4,500 and 5,000 meters above sea level). Before starting to ascend, the local people suggested making an offering to the earth, as an act of respect for the glacier.
“You can t climb on your father s head without asking permission,” they said.
That act became an essential part during all the explorations, during one of the trips the weather began to get bad, clouds and rain. Exaltación Chuquichampi, a very wise man and knowledgeable about the Andean Worldview, performed a ritual to improve the weather, minutes later A bright sun was born in the sky. Like these, there are several situations, difficult to explain in a logical way, but that have influenced my way of looking, giving a contemplative and dreamlike aspect to the images.
Have you observed any tangible changes or reactions from the local community or a broader audience as a result of this project?
Something valuable is that conversation circles have been generated especially in the younger generations of the Phinaya community (The closest to the glacier) as a result of the work, the project has been projected in the local school of the community where electricity and internet connection is limited, so accessing updated information on the state of the glacier is difficult for them.
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How do you see your role as an artist in the ongoing battle against climate change?
I believe that photographers have the power to show with the camera the raw realities of today s world and if at least one of my images can make a person anywhere in the world reflect on the subject, I consider that the project has already been successful. On the other hand, it would be very dreamy to think that a photograph can stop climate change, but it can create discussion, so that concrete actions are thought of.
