“In Spain, the opportunities to enjoy journalism over low heat are worse,”

The photographer Jaime Rojo, twice winner of the World Press Photo and the only Spanish that he exhibits at the International Photography Festival XPOSURE 2025, which is celebrated in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) from February 20 to 26, considers that “Spain has an extraordinary Photoperiodism talent “, although it clarifies but there is less and less space to stop to see photos for a beautiful exhibition. “That is, each time the opportunities to enjoy journalism over low heat and take off the cell’s eye,” he says in an interview with Europa Press.

Red has been crossing the puddle regularly, going and coming from the US and Mexico to Spain to carry out projects on either side of the Atlantic. However, he confesses that in Spain he has not found clients who can cover their photography style. “What I am not going to do is sacrifice my way of working because the work environment does not favor it,” he confesses.

He is a freelance photographer and his main client has been National Geographic for years, but diversifies his work with other media and projects. As he explains, part of the achievement of making a living with photography is due to his work in conservation. “I work as a photographer, but I am a conservationist of the heart. In fact, I think that I was saved to work in conservation, discipline in which you have to structure a project, write proposals for donors, for scholarships, to obtain funds. In America the Culture of philanthropy is very large and is a very effective way of operating, “he explains.

For him, the usual failure of photographers is that they tend to invest the process, that is, they try to sell a project when it is already done and admits that almost all the orders he has made have been “hired or paid in advance.”

In addition to exhibiting, Red has been in charge of presenting the fourth edition of the conservation summit of Xposure 2025, which this time is dedicated to migrations. The title of his exhibition is ‘Saving The Monarchs’ and is dedicated to the migration of monarch butterflies that every year in autumn fly from Canada and the US to Mexico to return to North America in summer.

The photographer recognizes feeling very proud to have his space in this great showcase of international photography, which he considers “overwhelming”, and the privileged place where his exhibition has been placed. “I am at the entrance, right in front of Don McCulley, which is a living legend of photography,” he emphasizes.

Before getting here, the photographs that make up ‘Saving The Monarchs’ were exhibited in Barcelona, ​​along with those of the rest of the World Press Photo 2024. The past was the second year that Jaime won the contest. In 2017, he triumphed in the nature category with one of the photos that make up the exhibition. Red attributes his success in the World Press Photo to his peculiar style to tell stories. “Last year, in the awards ceremony, several judges came to tell me that the report is photographed in a very atypical way for the contest. That is, very beautiful and colorful photos compose it, which supposed a break compared to the style So raw and so hard that the contest usually has, “he recalls.

He also adds that he used the monarch butterfly to talk about the relationship of human beings with the planet, how they produce their food and alternative economies through tourism. “It is a transversal issue that allows you to talk about many things,” he says.

Regarding the US and about the new Legislature of Donald Trump, Jaime Rojo admits that he is already being aware of the effect of his first days. “My colleagues from United States conservation organizations canceled the budget overnight and very long -lived projects were stopped,” says the photographer. Red says that it is the first time that in several people Note Palsy and frustration.

This photojournalist says representative of the ‘Positive Journalism’, that is, a stream of narrative that tries to focus on stories of vital transcendence through positivism. Red is currently immersed in a project supported by National Geographic in which he tries to measure the impact of the border wall between Mexico and the United States in terms of fauna. Assumes that it is a very sensitive issue from the political perspective. “If I tell it from the negative point of view, they may even cancel it,” he confesses.

Therefore, to inform the problems that the population of Jaguares finds to cross the US or the needs of the space that black bears have in Mexico, Red returns to the ‘positive journalism’. Therefore, the photographer is focusing his current work on telling the stories of people such as Valer Clark that “since the 80s he is buying land to protect them” or Rodrigo, a Mexican conservationist who works in Arizona with an organization that restores ecosystems and that Train and recruit young cross -border professionals to devote themselves to conservation issues.