Judges

Yumi Goto

is an experienced independent art and documentary photography curator, editor, researcher and consultant who focuses on the development of cultural exchanges that transcend borders. She collaborates with local and international artists who live and work in areas affected by conflict, natural disasters, current social problems, human rights abuses and women’s issues. She often works with human rights advocates, international and local NGOs, humanitarian organizations and as well as international photo festivals and events throughout Asia.

She is a founder of REMINDERS PROJECT, and has launched REMINDERS PHOTO PROJECT GRANT FOR ASIAN PHOTOGRAPHERS “Visual Story Telling” with the Angkor Photo Festival as well as a founding member of Tokyo Documentary Photography Workshop. She is a curator of the weekly photography blog, REMINDERS: I WAS THERE, and an editor in chief of pdfX12, photo documentary folio.

Ms. Goto is a jury member of the Asian Women photographers showcase for the Angkor Photo Festival, a jurist for the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand annual photo contest 2010, and for the KL PHOTO AWARD 2011.  She is a photo editor of the 100th memorial photographic book project, “THIS DAY OF CHANGE” by the Japanese publisher Kodansha which was nominated Lucie Award’s support Category. She is a recipient of Women’s Human Rights Activities Award, Yayori Journalist Award.

 

I hold a degree in International Relations from Boston University, a background which gives me a special interest in understanding how the news of the day becomes history.  For the past ten years, I have been a photographer for the Associated Press, based in several  capitals in Southeast Asia, most recently as Chief photographer in  Jakarta. During that time I have covered many of the most  consequential situations in Asia from Afghanistan to Fiji: coups,  people’s power movements, armed conflict, natural disasters, and the  ordinary lives of people living in these rapidly changing times.  I  approach my work with a keen eye toward transformational situations –  ”in between” states where people are affected by the energies that  change a situation from what was to what will be.  Early in 2009 I left  the Associated Press to pursue a freelance career, and have remained based in Jakarta.  My works appears in major newspapers and  magazines worldwide.