2005 Infinity Award: Young Photographer

Born in 1975 in Santiago, Chile, Tomás Munita began to photograph while traveling through South America, as a means of documenting the commonalities of human experience. His culminating thesis during his studies at the Arcos Institute in Santiago documented the Bolivian town of Potosi, showing its decline after its silver mining heydays. 

From 1998 to 2000, Munita worked as photojournalist for the newspaper El Metropolitano in Santiago,  then as an Associated Press photographer based in Panama until 2003. During this time, his photojournalism became a springboard for more personal work, documenting what he perceives as the permanent and constant struggle over land, hunger, power, and values. Munita captures his subjects in a heroic light, with sensitivity to detail and careful attention to fragile ways of living. 

Munita spent 2003 living in South Asia and spent part of his time in Ladakh, photographing the life of the Changpa nomads in the Indian Himalayas. He followed this in 2004 with projects in Santiago, Chile, and Kabul, Afghanistan.