Juan Medina

Juan Medina

Based
Madrid, Spain
Born
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Status
Photographer
“Every photography job represents a new challenge to produce the best photos possible.”

Beat

There are all sorts of things to cover in a city like Madrid: sports, politics, fashion and social issues such as immigration and eviction. I also cover people affected by the problems of economic crisis and unemployment.

One Shot

. Fuerteventura, Spain. REUTERS/Juan Medina
The body of a dead immigrant, who drowned after his makeshift boat capsized, lies covered on El Matorral beach in Fuerteventura, Spain, as beachgoers walk along in the background.
“The body of a dead immigrant, who drowned after his makeshift boat capsized, lies covered on El Matorral beach in Fuerteventura, Spain, as beachgoers walk along in the background.”

Profile

From a very young age, I enjoyed taking pictures with a Kodak Brownie Fiesta that my aunts had. Those shots are some of my first memories of photography.

I never studied photography formally; I’m self-taught. But when I began to get interested in photos, I received lots of help from photojournalists in the city of Granada, southern Spain. I’m still very grateful to them.

Assignments about migration from West Africa to the Canary Islands have left a big mark on me. It’s one of the cruelest exoduses we have seen in recent decades, both because of the social and economic factors that provoke it, and because it means people risk their lives crossing the desert or braving the sea in fragile boats.

Every photography job represents a new challenge to produce the best photos possible, and to create images that can summarize clearly what is going on.

All assignments are important, but the ones that concern me most are those that deal with people who are suffering some sort of social exclusion or who are facing a situation that makes them vulnerable or at risk. Often, photography is one of the few ways to show social problems that deserve the public’s attention.

I try to do my job well and, if I succeed, that means that a general audience will understand what is going on.

While doing my job, I’ve been impressed by the hospitality and respect that I have been shown by people who have the least.

Behind the Scenes

. Lisewo, Poland. Reuters/Kacho Cano
Reuters photographer Juan Medina lies on the ground to take pictures as a Polish boy plays soccer at a pitch in Lisewo, a village near Spain's training headquarters for the Euro 2012 soccer tournament.