A great jury for a great competition: when the gaze is also a way of shaping the future

Every year, the CENIE International Photography Competition turns the image into a global conversation about life, time and diversity.

 

Since its first edition, it has been much more than an artistic call: it is an invitation to look at the world with depth, to understand longevity not as a biological figure but as a shared story.

 

In 2025, its sixth edition — under the motto “Age does not define us. Our gaze does.” — has taken a decisive step forward.

 

The competition has not only established itself as a reference in the Iberian and Latin American spheres, but has also reaffirmed its role as a cultural project of CENIE, a space where science, art and emotion meet.

 

And that vision is reflected in the composition of its jury: six international figures who, from different paths, represent the diversity of the human gaze.

 

The art of seeing the essential: Isabel Muñoz

 

National Photography Prize, Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts and member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Isabel Muñoz has made the body a universal language.

 

Her portraits, printed in platinum, reveal the invisible: emotion as truth.

 

In her series Women of the Congo, Water or Anthropology of Feelings, the skin becomes a territory of memory and dignity.

 

Her presence on the jury embodies an idea essential to CENIE: that longevity is also art, a form of resistance and beauty.

 

Truth in the instant: Manu Brabo

 

Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most renowned photojournalists of his generation, Manu Brabo has portrayed dignity amid chaos.

 

His images, taken in conflicts such as Syria, Libya or Haiti, do not seek impact but understanding.

 

His incorporation into the jury adds the ethics of the witness: the conviction that photographing is choosing what deserves to be remembered.

 

Because longevity also implies that: knowing what to preserve, which story to save from the passing of time.

 

Memory as a gaze: Sandra Balsells

 

Sandra Balsells, Ortega y Gasset Award winner, represents committed memory.

 

Her work, documenting the war in the Balkans, Palestine or Mozambique, turns pain into awareness and the image into responsibility.

 

As a teacher, she defends an idea deeply connected to the spirit of the competition: looking is also learning to care.

 

Her presence on the jury brings the sensitivity of someone who has made photography a way to preserve human dignity.

 

Innovation that protects emotion: Stéphanie Van Duin

 

Director of CEWE Spain and a European reference in photographic innovation, Stéphanie Van Duin symbolises the union between technology and emotion.

 

She has shown that photography can remain a language of memory in a digital age.

 

Her participation in the jury reinforces a conviction shared with CENIE: the image not only documents life, it connects it.

 

Because behind every piece of data, as behind every face, there is always a story.

 

The image as conscience: Antonio López Díaz

 

Photographer, filmmaker and journalist, Antonio López Díaz is a fundamental voice in contemporary social photography.

 

His work unites art and denunciation: from environmental impact in the Amazon to the resistance of rural communities, his camera does not judge — it accompanies.

 

A teacher at EFTI, he teaches his students an ethical lesson: looking at the world is also a form of responsibility.

 

On the CENIE jury, his gaze brings commitment, respect and a deep awareness of the value of the human.

 

The art of bringing gazes together: José Luis Amores

 

Founder and director of the EFTI school for nearly four decades, José Luis Amores has been the architect of much of Spain’s photographic culture.

 

Cultural manager and curator, he has promoted more than 300 exhibitions and trained generations of photographers.

 

His incorporation into the jury symbolises the vocation of the competition: to be a meeting point between generations, styles and sensibilities.

 

His legacy shows that photography, like longevity, is built collectively, through dialogue and continuity.

 

One jury, six gazes, one idea

 

The 2025 jury embodies the essence of CENIE: diversity as a creative force.

 

Six paths, six languages, six ways of understanding the image, united by the same conviction: that looking is a way of caring.

 

From emotion to denunciation, from innovation to pedagogy, each of them expands the horizon of the competition and reaffirms its mission: to show life in all its breadth, without stereotypes or borders.

 

The CENIE International Photography Competition is not just an annual event: it is a cultural manifesto that challenges the way we represent age, diversity and experience.

 

Through the eyes of its jury, CENIE reminds us once again that longevity is not measured in years, but in gazes that continue to seek meaning.

 

A visual legacy for long-lived societies

 

With more than 15,000 works submitted since its creation, the competition has become one of CENIE’s most significant cultural communication projects.

 

Its value goes beyond the artistic: it is a visual chronicle of longevity, an archive that documents how we change, how we persist and how we imagine the future.

 

That is why this year, A great jury for a great competition becomes one of CENIE’s Highlights of the Year: because it summarises in a single initiative everything that CENIE represents.

 

A space where science becomes culture, where age becomes diversity, and where beauty, ethics and emotion learn to coexist.