2025 SDN Visual Storytelling Festival Speaker Series

2025 ZEKE Award Winners

Tuesday, April 29, 1:30 pm ET via Zoom

Jan Banning, Healing Wounds: Reconciliation in Post-Genocide Rwanda
Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Behond the Lake
Maggie Soladay: Moderator

Rose Mukarusagara (60) lost her two eldest children and almost her entire family during the genocide. On April 10, 1994, a group, including Ezechiel Niyibizi (46), attacked her, killed her baby, her sister-in-law, and left Rose severely injured. Her right hand still shows the scars. In 2014, Rose joined CBS Rwanda’s sociotherapy, seeking healing. During the sessions, Ezechiel apologized for killing her baby, and eventually, she forgave him. Photo by Jan Banning.

Join us with the winners of the 2025 ZEKE Award for Documentary Photography and the ZEKE Award for Systemic Change, a yearly award program given out by SDN. The winners are featured in the spring issue of ZEKE magazine and will be exhibited at Photoville in Brooklyn, NY in June.

First Place: ZEKE Award for Documentary Photography

Carlos Folgoso Sueiro
Beyond the Lake, Spain

Tony brought home nuts, claiming Rosemary gave them to him, though she existed only in his dreams. Adolf and Raúl’s house was burned down by neighbors over land disputes. María, an emigrant, left her son in Galicia. Years after her return, he succumbed to alcoholism, a reflection of the broader struggles faced in rural areas. Sabucedo’s wild horses struggle for space as rural abandonment reduces their lands. The droughts of 2022/23 left 14.6% of Spain in water emergency, exposing critically low reservoirs. The village of Aceredo, submerged by the Lindoso reservoir, has reemerged due to droughts, offering a haunting glimpse into the past. Eucalyptus replanting for industry, including Altri’s proposed textile fiber plant, risks biodiversity, soil health, and water sustainability. The factory’s daily water use of 46 million liters threatens the Ulla River, a lifeline for the region.

These stories stem from Galicia, where reality blends legend. Change driven by climate challenges, depopulation, land abandonment, emigration, and alcoholism threatens the fragile identity of Galicia’s communities. This project sheds light on their struggle to adapt and survive.

Carlos Folgoso Sueiro is a photographer from Spain who has a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology. His photographic work engages closely with social, geopolitical, and environmental issues, particularly in Russia and his homeland, Galicia, Spain. His interests range from historical and philosophical topics to abstract ideas like the origin of time, gravity, the creation and destiny of the universe, and the deep feelings of human beings. In select works, Carlos investigates, from a metaphorical point of view, the atmosphere and problems of his land: nostalgia, abandonment, social rejection, exclusion, and dualisms such as oppression and domination. Other works stem from long-term documentary projects that explore isolated or self-excluded communities around remote areas of the Russian Far East. For Carlos, what once began as a story about the place itself and the people who lived there, has become a study of his evolution as a photographer. Beyond, his documentary work, Carlos works as a photojournalist covering current events such as the Lampedusa Sea, the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, the refugee exodus from the Middle East, and the Costa Concordia disaster. His work has been published in several publications including National Geographic, and Vanity Fair. He has also worked closely with leading photographers and photo editors such as Jonas Bendisksen and Alex Webb and also participated in the Eddie Adams Workshop and the New York Times portfolio review. 

First Place: ZEKE Award for Systemic Change

Jan Banning
Healing Wounds: Reconciliation in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Thirty years after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, remarkable partnerships have emerged: survivors reconciling with those who killed their loved ones—a profound journey toward healing.

During the genocide, 800,000 people were killed in 100 days, often by neighbors using crude weapons. Survivors bear deep scars, while perpetrators wrestle with guilt. Photographer Jan Banning and writer Dick Wittenberg spent a month meeting pairs of former enemies who reconciled, revealing stories of immense suffering and forgiveness.

Over 20% of Rwandans face trauma, with rates exceeding 50% among survivors. To address this, CBS Rwanda introduced a community-based sociotherapy program in 2005. More than 64,000 participants, supported by 1,000 trained volunteers, engage in sessions blending safety, care, and storytelling. Singing, dancing, and shared narratives foster trust and empathy.

Many perpetrators express remorse, and 80% of groups continue meeting, maintaining transformative bonds and rekindling friendships.While the scars of genocide remain, Rwanda demonstrates that even the most divided societies can begin to heal.

Jan Banning is an independent Dutch photographer based in the Netherlands. Banning was born to parents from the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) and studied social and economic history. Both his background and academics have strongly influenced his photographic work, whether expressed in his choice of subjects or the historical aspects of his themes. In his photographic work, the socio-political context is generally at the forefront, and he often chooses subjects that are difficult to visualize: state power, the long-term consequences of conflicts, and criminal justice. Sometimes, his work is the result of an approach that relies on sociological or anthropological classification; at other times, it focuses more on the individual psychological impact of major social events. Research plays a significant role in his work as it is the sound intellectual foundation of his projects. Banning frequently conceptualizes his approach and uses a typological method: visual research in which he looks for variations within a tightly repeated form. Banning occasionally describes himself as an ‘artivist,’ not satisfied with merely visualizing themes through documentary work but also striving to bring about change using both his work and his reputation. His work has been showcased in countless collections and exhibitions across the world and has been published in more than a dozen photobooks and by many media outlets. 

Maggie Soladay, moderator

Maggie Soladay is Senior Photography Editor at the Open Society Foundations in New York. Her work with OSF involves addressing racial, economic, and political justice issues around the world through photography. Soladay is always looking to work with photographers who explore human rights issues. She has been working in the photography industry for over 25 years.

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