Federico Rios Escobar47Why the War on Drugs Has Failed

Colombian photojournalist and Pulitzer finalist Federico Rios Escobar joins Eyeshot 50mm to discuss documentary photography, the war on drugs, and his new monograph “White Line”. In this Eyeshot 50mm interview, Colombian photojournalist Federico Rios Escobar refuses the aura of the unique photographer. Best known for his five-year coverage of the Darien Gap for the New York Times, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Rios calls himself “one more photographer”. He thinks of photography as a pizza, his work as one slice of a wider conversation that takes shape only when many voices look at the same situation. We talk about documenting three sides of the same Colombian conflict, the army’s, the farmer’s, the rebel group’s, on three consecutive days. From coca-growing regions to the Darién Gap, Ríos Escobar discusses photography as visual memory, the ethics of witnessing, and the responsibility of staying close to people whose lives are shaped by conflict, migration, poverty, and political failure. He discusses Leica primes, manual focus as slow practice, and documentary photography as a jam session.