Known for her true passion for environmental and social storytelling, Arango began: “What does hunger feel like? We feel hungry one, two, maybe three times per day. But the hunger I am referring to is not so easily satisfied. This hunger causes disease and death… and has long-term, often irreversible consequences”.
Since 2016, she has worked on the scene of numerous humanitarian and food emergencies around the world.
Her three-year endeavour in Guatemala, ‘Until the Corn Grows Back’,revealed the devastating human price of climate change in the Dry Corridor. Showcasing the connection between environmental challenges and malnutrition, Arango said, “People there are losing at least half of their harvest every year.”
“Chronic malnutrition is not like the hunger you imagine: it is not visible at first sight. But it damages their brains, their bodies, and their futures,” she added.
Beyond environmental hardships, the researcher exposed the role of conflict in exacerbating food insecurity, drawing on her work in Colombia and Lebanon. She described how hunger is more than a byproduct of war, it is often used as a weapon. “Armed groups impose restrictions on where locals can fish or farm. Entire livelihoods are destroyed, and people are left with nothing. It’s a vicious circle,” she observed.
Arango has spent years documenting how hunger intersects with migration, climate change, and inequality, and while her projects have spanned conflict zones and drought-stricken regions, she also turned her lens to unexpected places where hunger exists silently.
Her work in France - a first world country associated with wealth and privilege - unveiled the hidden struggles of the underclass dealing with food insecurity. “Jean Pierre is 72 years old. He worked all his life cleaning streets in Paris, yet now he cannot afford food from the supermarket,” she recounted, displaying the subject’s photo and illustrating that hunger is not confined to the Global South.
“Through photography, I aim to challenge how hunger has been visually represented,” she noted. “It’s important to move away from sensationalism and stereotypes and focus instead on the complexity, resilience, and context.”
Closing her talk, the winner of major awards including National Geographic’s Pictures of the Year in the Environmental Vision category (2023), the National Geographic Award at the Eddie Addams Workshop (2021), and the NatGeo Explorers grant (2024), touched on the challenges of documenting these issues and her commitment to it. “It is very difficult to document hunger, but I think that we should never stop. I will keep trying, trying to find a new, different angle in each project.”
Organised by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB) Xposure 2025 is taking place in Aljada, Sharjah until February 26. To plan your visit, see
https://xposure.net/
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