UAC-Supported Photography Project Wins 1st Place in 2020 ZEKE Awards

Miluska with pet howler monkey. Miluska’s Chitonahua tribe was contacted in the mid-1990s by loggers working illegally in their territory. Men were forced into debt and forced to work it off, essentially in a form of indentured servitude. In the early 2000’s they settled on the Yurúa River, Peru.

July 7, 2020: Photographer Jason Houston was selected for first place in Social Documentary Network’s 2020 ZEKE Award for Documentary Photography for our ongoing project in the Peruvian Amazon, “Last Wildest Place”.

Jason has been working with Chris Fagan and Upper Amazon Conservancy photographing issues related to indigenous rights and protected areas in the Purús/Manu region since 2015. The ZEKE Award jury was made up of photo industry professionals including Kurt Mutchler, Photo Editor, National Geographic; Jeffrey Scales, Photo Editor, New York Times; Fiona Shields, Head of Photography, The Guardian News Media Group; and Maggie Soladay, Photo Editor, Open Society Foundations. Recognition includes a feature portfolio in ZEKE Magazine (with an article by Chris Fagan) and an exhibition at Photoville in New York this fall.