James Rodriguez
photographer
Panos Pictures
Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
(US-Mexico, 1972). Documentary Photographer and Photojournalist based in Guatemala since 2006 focusing on post-war processes, human rights abuses, land tenure issues, and social conflicts caused by extractive industries in Guatemala and the region. Member of Getty Images Global Assignment.
Has published in and/or completed assignments for: International New York Times, The Toronto Star, New York Times Lens, National Geographic.com, The Guardian, TIME for Kids, Americas Quarterly, NACLA Report on the Americas, New Internationalist, Vice.com, Canadian Dimension, Amnesty International, Oxfam America, Save the Children, Whole Foods Market.
Awards/Exhibits: 2015 POY Latin America contest (“Story with a phone camera”, 1st place), 2015 LAF-LAI, 2015 Visa Pour L’Image screening of decade-long project “Guatemala, Life After Genocide”, Itinerant exhibit with Amnesty International on Mining conflicts in Latin America.
2016 - NPPA: Honorable Mention, Contemporary Issues Singl, 2016 - Atlanta PJ Seminar: 2nd place feature story, 2015 - POY Latin America: 1st Place, Story with a Phone, 2015 - Visa Pour L'image: Guatemala, Life After Genocide, 2015 - Latin American Fotografia 4: Los Diez Selection
- Audio capture
- Breaking news
- Editorial
- Environment
- Interview
- Portrait
- Reporting
- Sports
- Video capture
- English
- Spanish
- Japanese
- Portuguese
Covadonga Mass Burial in Chajul
James Rodriguez
Community members from Estrella Polar and Covadonga hamlets head to the cemetery to bury the human remains of 77 war victims exhumed from mass graves in 2009. The victims were killed during the Covadonga massacre by the Guatemalan military forces on March 29, 1982, during the de facto government of General Efrain Rios Montt as part of a scorched earth campaign against numerous Mayan villages believed to support the guerrilla forces. Estrella Polar, Chajul, Quiche, Guatemala. November 20, 2014.
Mass Grave Burial in Pambach
James Rodriguez
Friends and family members pray over the skeletal remains of wartime victim Santiago Jalaija inside a coffin at his family's home. The positively identified male remains of six wartime victims, including Santiago's, are returned to their appropriate families by members of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) in the Poqomchi' Mayan hamlet of Pambach, 38 kilometers from Coban. The remains, matched through DNA samples, were exhumed from grave 17 of the Regional Command of Training and Peacekeeping Operations (CREOMPAZ), formerly known as Military Zone 21 in Coban. All six men were taken by the army during an incursion to the village on June 2, 1982, during the de facto government of Efrain Rios Montt, and were never seen again. A total of 64 skeletal remains were recovered from grave 17, the majority of which bore evidence of violence such as blindfolds and bound hands and feet. Pambach, San Cristobal Verapaz, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. November 22, 2013.
Nebaj: Daily Life
James Rodriguez
Local Ixil Mayans in search of family members disappeared during the internal armed conflict (1960-1996) wait for their turn to provide DNA samples to members of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG). Nebaj, Quiche, Guatemala. November 5, 2014.