Pep Bonet

Photographer (Colònia de Sant Jordi, 1974)

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Born in Còlonia de Sant Jordi, a small village surrounded by some of the most beautiful beaches in southern Mallorca, Pep Bonet had never thought about becoming a photographer until he was twenty- three and saw an exhibition by the Dutch street photographer Ed Van der Elsken in Amsterdam. Until then, Pep had lived in Tarifa and Hawaii, earning a living as a professional windsurfer, and he had even taken part in the world championship.

 

Fired with enthusiasm about the power that the pictures in Van der Elsken’s exhibition transmitted, Bonet took a photography course in the Dutch city and began to travel around the world, portraying the most disadvantaged people with an intensely poetic approach: the blind, mutilated war veterans, orphans, prostitutes...

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His work has led him to visit such conflictive countries as Sierra Leone and Honduras, where he has lived all kinds of experiences, some of which put his life in danger. He accepts the risk as another part of his work.

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His brilliant career has been acknowledged with prizes like FotoPres '03, second prize in the category of Sports in the World Press Photo '07 contest, the second prize in the Portraits of the World Press Photo '09 and the prestigious scholarship Eugene Smith.