INTERVIEWED BY UTHRA CHANDRASEKHAR | CAPTURED BY ARCHI SAXENA, KASHIF ALI AND SAGAR THAMMINEDI | DIRECTED & EDITED BY ARCHI SAXENA
Pep Bonet (Spain) is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer who has traveled extensively capturing the aftermaths of various political issues, health issues and social issues across the globe. His longer-term projects focuses on African issues, with his most well known project being ‘Faith in Chaos”, a photo essay on the aftermath of the war in Sierra Leone. Pep’s ongoing work is around the globe on HIV/Aids and identity that has led to several photography books and many exhibitions worldwide. He is also know for a long-term reportage on the rock ‘n roll band Motörhead. Pep spent many years (2008-2015) on the road with Lemmy Kilmister, the legendary singer of the band and created an exceptional visual document of the many hours spent on the road with Motörhead.
Pep crafted himself into shooting documentaries. This resulted in several short and long documentary films, amongst which the award winning ‘Into the Shadows’, a pursuit into the lives of hundreds and thousands of Africans living in the inner city of Johannesburg. Pep’s work has been recognized with various industry awards. It started in 2002 when he was selected for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass with his work “Faith in Chaos”. That same year he was nominated “one of the top 30 to watch” by Photo District News. Pep won the Kodak Young Photographer of the Year in 2003 at the festival Visa pour l`image, and the Luchetta Foundation in Trieste awarded him the best press photographer of the year in 2004. In 2009 Pep won a second World Press Photo Award for his work “Forced Identity”, portraying the lives of transsexuals in Honduras. In 2013, Pep won his third World Press Photo Award winning in the category Multimedia for Into the Shadows. In 2015 Pep has been the recipient of the Horbach Award. His list of publications include “Generacion Perdida” (2010), “Remarkable South Africans”(2009), “Photobolsillo”, a new Photobolsillo from La Fabrica with a collection of Spanish photographers, “One Goal” (2007) and “Somalia: The Invisible Trace” (2007), “Quadern de Bitacola”, a text book written by Carles Domenec and “POSITHIV+” (2005), “Watching in Silence” (2011), “17 milagroso” (2009), 217A; a NOOR book (2008), “We the people of Wacken” (2014) UDR, “Röadkill, Motörhead” (2013).
He has done exhaustive work in the Himalayas, documenting its glorious landscape and hardy people. He is a trained mountaineer and has also traversed the mountain ranges on his motorcycle. His freelance assignments included work for UNICEF, NGO’s, advertising agencies and direct clients.
