In alliance with the photojournalism agency darkroom, Peninsula 360 Press and Global Exchange they collaborated so that Omar Martínez photographed the elections of Brazil 2022.
Omar Martínez, who is currently part of the Mexican photojournalism agency Cuartoscuro, led by one of the most relevant lenses of modern Mexico, Pedro Valtierra, has spoken with the Bay Area Portraits section of Peninsula 360 Press about his most recent coverage , where Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva defeated the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, with more than 50 percent of the votes in the second round of the elections in that country.
One of the most representative photographs that was generated in said coverage portrays Lula victorious, smiling and with his fist raised, facing the bright green flag, knowing that he had won the elections. Omar Martínez and his camera ready, were there.
In an interview, Martínez recalled that one of the objectives within the planning to obtain "the image" was to portray the then potential winner.
To achieve this, Omar got on trucks full of people where, through his inseparable camera, he was able to record Lula's gestures of gratitude to his voters, framed by the Brazilian flag.
He also walked through the streets full of voters, where he not only observed a scene of partying, but of love, as people, in addition to laughing, kissed each other out of joy after the victory of their candidate.
However, the photograph that was immediately published in both national and international media was the one in which he climbed to the top of a light pole to closely portray the victory of the virtual president of Brazil, Lula da Silva.
It should be noted that Omar Martínez has a prolific photojournalistic career in northern Mexico, which begins with the permanent presence of his work in the collection of the Athenaeum Museum, in the city of La Jolla, California.
Martínez is a correspondent for the Cuaroscuro Agency in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, where he has covered one of the most complex phenomena today: the migration crisis in Latin America, with the so-called "Migrant Caravan" of 2018.
This migratory event deserved international attention, since during November 2018 more than six thousand migrants from Central America arrived in Tijuana with the intention of requesting asylum in the United States. Such coverage earned Martínez an exhibition of his work at the Nubuke Foundation, in Ghana, Africa, in 2019.
In addition, within Omar's career there are awards such as the Young Photographer Award from the V National Biennial of Photojournalism 2001-2002.
In 2020, he won first place in the Baja California journalism contest organized by The San Diego Union Tribune and El Centro de Estudios México-Estados Unidos.
For more details about Omar Martínez and his work as a photojournalist and his coverage of the Brazilian elections, visit the interview on the Instagram account of Peninsula 360 Press.
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