Jesús Abad Colorado (born 1967) is a Colombian photojournalist. His work focuses on human rights and armed conflict.
He was born in 1967 in Medellín, Colombia. He received a BA in communications from the University of Antioquia. He worked as a photographer for the Medellín newspaper El Colombiano from 1992 to 2001. His work has been shown in more than 30 exhibits, and has been shown internationally. He is co-author of two books, Relatos e Imágenes: El desplazamiento Forzado en Colombia (Narratives and Images: Forced Internal Displacement in Colombia) and Desde la prisión, realidades de las cárceles en Colombia (From the Prison, Realities of the jails in Colombia), and has collaborated on many other books on the subject of human rights.
In 2000, he was kidnapped at a roadblock by National Liberation Army guerrillas and held for two days.
His work has been recognized with numerous awards. He won the Simón Bolivar Prize for Journalism three times. In 2006, he was awarded the Caritas award in Switzerland and the CPJ International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. The committee to Protect Journalists had never before given this award to a photojournalist. In 2009, he was on the shortlist for the Prix Pictet.
Early life
Jesús Abdad Colorado had an abnormal childhood. Colorado was not like most children due to being exposed to wartime conditions in the country of Colombia. Colorado came from a family of Antioquian farmers; his life quickly shifted after his grandmother and uncle were executed during the turmoil that took place during the Colombian conflict. This tragedy sparked his empathetic nature, causing him not to seek revenge on the killers of his family but yet to tell the story of his relatives.
The Colombian Conflict is what caused Colorado to pick up a camera. He knew there were stories to be told, but his fears about writing kept him from becoming a journalist. However, he knew he could capture the true essence of everyday people through pain, equality and human rights. "War is represented by the media in a banal way that turns human life into statistics. What I do is take pictures, facing people, looking into their eyes, to give a name to those who I saw crying many times, but also to those who I saw pick themselves up again, always respecting their humanity", Colorado said.
Career
Throughout his 25-year career in photography, Colorado has accumulated experience and numerous awards within the field. Colorado began his career working as a photojournalist for the leading newspaper in Medellín, Colombia, El Colombiano. He started his work there from 1992 through 2001. During this time, Colorado began making a name for himself with his photographs. In 1997 Colorado co-wrote Relatos e Imágenes: El desplazamiento Forzado en Colombia. Colorado then went on to publish his own book, Contra El Olvido, which is a collection of Colombian conflict photography in 1998. Colorado has claimed the Simone Bolivar prize three times (2000, 2001, and 2003). The award is given to someone who has proven themselves as a Latin American "hero." Between 2003 and 2005, Colorado displayed his works in his exhibition Memoria la Guerra Olvidada en Colombia (Memory: The Forgotten War in Colombia). The exhibit ended up being displayed in the Swiss Parliament, in other places, including the United Nations in Geneva. In 2006, he was awarded with the Caritas in Switzerland for advocating for social justice through his images and he was the very first photojournalist in history to receive the International Press Freedom Award from The committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). In 2009, Colorado went on to co-author another book, Desde la prisión, realidades de las cárceles en Colombia (From the Prison, Realities of the jails in Colombia). His latest exhibit, "El Testigo," opened on 20 October 2019, and displayed 557 images of Colorado's that recorded 25 years of armed conflict in Colombia. The original duration of the exhibit(3 months), was extended to a year due to the 280,000 people who had already visited it in Colombia's capital, Bogotá. The collection is quoted as being"the exhibition that has had the greatest impact on Bogotá's society."