I met Andrea in Miami at Univision, where we’re both journalists. But even before I knew her, I was drawn to her work. Specifically, I was captivated by a video she made from Colombia in advance of last year’s peace vote. I think I must have watched that video five or six times in a row, finding new emotions each time. I soon learned Andrea was herself from Bogotá, Colombia, where I had lived a year earlier. Before long we’d become friends. In the year since then, I’ve been similarly captivated by each piece of visual journalism Andrea creates, and I’m honored to be her reporting partner during our IWMF fellowship in El Salvador and Guatemala.

Why did you choose to focus on video and photography?  

“I got interested in visual culture from an intellectual point of view because I was studying anthropology and my professor did a lot of visual anthropology. I come from a background where writing was more appreciated, and where ideas come across more through text. But I became fascinated by the way in which images can also be read really closely. You can interpret so much from how people frame things or the lens they use, or why something is shaky or blurry. All of that is informed by their values and their context. Images tell you so much about a culture and about humans. I really enjoy that.”

– Jessica Weiss