1,138 Photographers, a World of Gazes: the VI Edition that Confirmed an Intuition

Since its creation, the International Photography Contest convened by the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, through CENIE, has been a singular territory within the Iberian cultural landscape: a place where photography does not compete, but converses; where the image is not limited to representing, but to questioning; where longevity ceases to be a demographic concept to become a human story, complex and full of nuances.

In its VI edition, held in 2025, this vocation reached a particularly revealing expression: 1,138 photographers from multiple countries and cultures decided to come together to look at the world from a different place. Their massive participation is not a mere demonstration of interest; it is the confirmation of an intuition that CENIE has defended for years: that age does not define us. The gaze does.

A global community articulated by a common impulse
 

The extraordinary diversity of participants cannot be explained by chance. It reveals that the contest has managed to position itself at a point where sensibilities, artistic traditions, emotions, and universal questions converge. The origin of the authors is a living map: major European cities, rural territories of Latin America, Asian communities where visual memory is a sacred asset, African countries where photography functions both as historical record and cultural affirmation.

There are established photographers with decades of experience and young ones searching for their voice. Some work with analog processes, others explore digital narratives. Some capture the human body with almost sculptural light, others observe everyday spaces with documentary delicacy.

Yet despite this diversity, all share the same impulse: to look at longevity without clichés. To let the image illuminate what often goes unnoticed. And, in that search, to embrace the motto of this edition: “Age does not define us. The gaze does.”

A common language for a global challenge
 

One of the riches of this edition is to see how photography can serve as a bridge between cultures. The images received form a fabric of sensibilities that, while distinct, recognize each other.

There are scenes portraying the passage of time in rural communities, where longevity is expressed through gestures sustaining centuries-old traditions. There are urban portraits showing the vitality of those living long lives in cities that transform at an accelerated pace. There are intergenerational stories celebrating bonds. There are profound gazes that, without uttering a word, claim dignity. There are silences photographed that contain more truth than any speech.

And in each of these images beats the same idea: that longevity is not only a matter of years lived, but of meaning constructed. And that meaning is expressed in the way we look, understand, and represent people over time.

The archive that grows and forces us to look better
 

With the works of this edition, CENIE surpasses 15,000 photographs received since the beginning of the contest. This archive is not merely a collection; it is a living document of how our perception of age and time evolves.

In its visual pages, a profound change can be observed: each year, more photographers look at longevity without falling into standardized images. Without resorting to easy nostalgia or fragility as the sole discourse. They show it as a rich, diverse, contradictory, and profoundly human experience.

The 1,138 participants this year have decisively expanded that archive. Their works not only enrich a cultural repository; they also contribute to a more ambitious task: renewing the visual imagination of long-lived societies. Pointing out that the value of a life is not measured in chronologies, but in gazes capable of recognizing meaning, beauty, and continuity.

Thus, this archive fulfills a double function: it documents and it guides. It allows us to observe how we change as a society and signals what gaze we need to move toward a fairer and more conscious culture.

A before and after in the history of the contest
 

The participation of 1,138 photographers makes this edition a milestone. Not only because of the volume, but because of what that figure represents: trust. Trust in CENIE’s cultural project. Trust in its ability to narrate longevity from a place that combines science, art, and social sensitivity. Trust that the image can transform the way we understand long life.

This year has shown that the contest is not an isolated event, but a space of permanent reflection. A cultural laboratory where new ways of seeing are tested and where photography becomes a tool of thought.

And the international response is, precisely, the best proof that the motto of this edition is not a slogan, but a declaration of principles that the artistic community has embraced. Because the authors who participated did not send photographs about “age”: they sent gazes. And those gazes are what define the power of the contest.

Celebrating diversity, celebrating what is to come
 

What truly makes this edition great is the chorus formed by those 1,138 photographers. Their works show that, when it comes to portraying longevity, the world does not speak with a single voice, but with many. And it is this polyphony that reveals the richness of the theme.

For CENIE, this edition once again confirms that photography is a meeting point between disciplines: science, emotion, memory, aesthetics, and humanity. A place where it is possible to build a broader, brighter, and fairer narrative about the passage of time.