Member of the Jury – 6th Edition of the CENIE Photography Contest
There are gazes that don’t just observe — they reveal. Isabel Muñoz’s belongs to that rare category of artists who have turned the camera into an instrument of knowledge, empathy, and transformation. Her work is an unending exploration of what makes us human — the body, emotion, fragility, and strength — a quest that crosses cultures, geographies, and generations.
Winner of Spain’s National Photography Award (2016), recipient of the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts, and a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Isabel Muñoz has traveled the world for more than four decades with a unique sensitivity for capturing emotion in its purest state. From prisons to temples, from African tribes to the movement of dancers, her work combines a powerful aesthetic with a profound sense of human dignity.
In her iconic series — The Anthropology of Feelings, Women of the Congo, Water, and Childhood — the body becomes a territory of memory, resistance, and beauty. Each photograph is a statement: we are beings of emotion, flesh, and spirit. Her images, printed in platinum, seem to breathe; in them, skin and light engage in dialogue with the soul.
Her career has been internationally recognized with awards such as the World Press Photo (1999 and 2004), the Bartolomé Ros Award, the UNICEF Award for Social Awareness, and the Community of Madrid Award. Her works are part of major collections, including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.
Today, Isabel Muñoz is undertaking a new investigation into the origins of humanity through the Paleolithic cave art of Cantabria — a journey to the dawn of emotion, where the image is born as both an ancestral gesture and a need for transcendence.
The Art of Seeing the Essential
Isabel Muñoz’s visual universe makes no distinction between ages or geographies: on every skin, she finds a story, a truth. That is why her presence on the jury of the 6th CENIE Photography Contest “Age Does Not Define Us. The Gaze Does.” is an invitation to look differently.
In a time that confuses youth with worth and speed with life, her photography reminds us that every wrinkle, every gesture, every look is a mark of existence. Longevity, as she portrays it, is not merely time — it is experience, desire, resilience, and beauty.
The CENIE contest shares that same conviction: age does not limit the gaze — it expands it. Each participant, through their lens and their story, can help build a new visual narrative about what it means to live longer and better.
Having Isabel Muñoz on the jury is a mark of excellence, but above all, it is a declaration of principles: longevity is also art, emotion, and meaning.
An Invitation to Participate
The deadline to submit photographs is November 30. Participating is a way to join a collective conversation about the passage of time, diversity, and the beauty of long lives. The presence of Isabel Muñoz, alongside an internationally renowned jury, ensures a rigorous, sensitive, and open evaluation — one that welcomes all perspectives.
Because, as her work has shown, the camera does not distinguish age — it distinguishes truth.
“To photograph is to love. It’s to come close enough to another’s skin to feel their soul”, Isabel Muñoz once said. That phrase could summarize the spirit of this contest: to draw closer, to understand one another, to celebrate one another.
Art, like longevity, is a shared journey.
Find out more about Isabel Muñoz and her work here.