Dewever-Plana Miquel

Catalan by birth, Miquel Dewever-Plana chose to devote his life to the fight for indigenous rights after studying photojournalism in Paris. Travelling through Mexico and Guatemala between 1995 and 2000, he committed his time to studying the thirty Mayan peoples. The 170 colour photographs in his first book, “Mayas” (CLD Editions) are a precious testimony of an ancient lifestyle undergoing change.
For more than two years, the photographer met with survivors of the Maya genocide in Guatemala where more than 200,000 people were massacred by the army during the Cold War, and 45,000 disappeared. He also met with members of Truth Commissions. All the portraits created, as well as testimonies collected about this dark chapter were collected in a book, “La vérité sous la terre: le génocide silencieux” (Underground truth: The Silent Genocide). His images are witnesses to an important historical work.

Miquel Dewever Plana received the Journalism and Human Rights Prize in 2008 from the International Festival of Photojournalism in the City of Gijon (Spain) for "Underground truth : the silent genocide ," his work in Guatemala.
In 2012, with the French journalist Isabelle Fougere, he directed the web-documentary "Alma, A Tale of Violence", produced by Arte, Upian and Agence VU : alma.arte.tv