"Works and Days"
The 32nd Latin American Documentary Photography Contest "The Works and the Days" , traditionally organized by the National Trade Union School (ENS) of Colombia , a non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion and defense of labor and trade union rights, is one of the most important photojournalism and documentary photography contests in the region.
Registration is free and you can submit up to five works. The deadline is October 31st.
Check the rules, terms and conditions and participate
First prize: $5.000.000 COP / Second prize: $3.000.000 COP
Central theme and subject matter
The competition aims to highlight, document, and reflect on the human condition in the workplace through imagery. Its main themes include:
World of work: Portraits and stories about the diverse forms of work in Latin America and the world (formal, informal, rural, urban, artisanal, industrial and digital).
Labor rights and union struggles: Images that record the organization of workers, strikes, mobilizations, the defense of human rights and the search for dignified conditions.
Precarity and gender gaps: Examples of wage gaps, unpaid care work, child labor, exploitation and informality.
Resilience and everyday life: Daily life, trade traditions and the dignity of workers in their community environments.
Usual categories
The competition is usually structured into several thematic and participation categories:
Working Women: Focused on the role, struggles and visibility of women's work.
Informal work / Precariousness: Documentation of the popular economy and conditions of vulnerability.
Rural world and peasantry: Working in the fields, food sovereignty and the relationship with the land.
Working Children / Youth: Denouncing child exploitation and the challenges of youth employment.
Labor disputes and union organization: Collective action and social protest.
Everyday life: The cultural and social dynamics surrounding the workplace.
Projection and relevance
The selected and winning works are usually included in a traveling exhibition and a commemorative book. The competition serves as a visual archive of the historical memory of the working classes in Latin America, promoting photography as a tool for denunciation, social awareness, and political transformation.
The Latin American Documentary Photography Competition “Works and Days” was founded in Medellín over three decades ago as an initiative of the National Trade Union School (ENS), and has since become the most important socio-documentary visual platform and archive on the world of work in Latin America. From its inception, the competition has been conceived as a pedagogical, aesthetic, and ethical endeavor to highlight, reflect upon, and dignify workers as fundamental protagonists of productive, social, and care processes. It has brought together thousands of photographs from photojournalists, documentary filmmakers, and amateur photographers who have documented everything from traditional trades and informal economies to labor struggles, the gender gap, and the technological transformations of the workplace throughout the region.
