Faces and Stories: Christian Kieffer’s Photographic Journey from Latin America to the Portrait

My 2 award winning photos were the two I added into the competition. It's documentary work from my latest trek into the mountains of the Sierra Nevada in the department of César, Colombia, close to the Venezuelan border. 

This trek, organised by 3 Colombian friends, took place in September 2025 and was my 4th time visiting different areas and indigenous communities in the Sierra. The 2 winning photos were shot in Sarachui, a Kogi village which can be reached after a 3-hour trek from the small pueblo Guatapuri in the Sierra Nevada. 

A difficult question: these photos were part of a recent exhibition and I prepared around 120 photos in A4 format, and I let some photography friends choose 30 for the exhibition. These two photos were part of that exhibition. Each photo is a personal story for me, which makes it always difficult to find the right selection. 

I am now 56. When I was 12 or so, I got my first camera. Since then, I have always been taking photos but I became more seriously involved by the end of the 1990s. 

I am a people photographer, from studio portraits to staged things, but my favourite type of photography is street portraits and documentary work, discovering cultures and portraying strangers. 

I am shooting manually and not using any programs; only the AF is on automatic. I normally work with prime lenses. 

Seeing into the soul of those I am portraying. 

As both photos were shot in the same location, getting there was not so easy. In the morning heat, leaving from Guatapuri for the mountains is a challenge as a backpacker, carrying all my equipment and other needs. 

I just love Colombia, where I have been 9 times. The Sierra Nevada mountain range, as well as the Pacific coast (Chocó) and the Amazon region on the three frontiers (Brazil, Peru, Colombia), are my favourite spots. 

Street photographers like Vivian Maier and others of this time are inspiring me, but also so many documentary photographers from our time. 

Just keep trying and find your own style so that people can recognise your work. 

Just keep trying and don't give up. Learn the essentials of photography first; depending on the art you're doing, consult known photographers or ancient painters. 

Only my artistic portraits are worked on in Photoshop; for documentary and photojournalistic works, I use little editing, mostly in Lightroom. 

As long as AI is marked as such and added to a special section called AI, I am fine with it, but I won't use it myself. 

Indigenous communities.