Photo © Eliana Aponte | Jibaro Photos

Eliana Aponte

Founding Member
born: Colombia
based: Cuba
Website | @eliaponte

Biography

Eliana Aponte worked as a Reuters staff reporter for 12 years. During her time with Reuters, she was based in Israel, Palestine, Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia, and covered the Lebanon-Israel war, the Iraq war, Colombia's conflict, Haiti's 2004 political crisis, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the Central American migration to the United States through Mexico. In addition, Aponte has covered Rio de Janeiro's Carnival and the 2004 Athens Summer Olympic games among other sporting events.

Before joining Reuters, Aponte worked for the AFP news agency in Panama and for newspapers and magazines in her native Colombia. She is a graduate of the University Externado de Colombia's Communications and Journalism School and has served as a jury member for the World Press Photo in the 2016 General News category. Aponte has been a speaker at the TEDxBogotaMujeres in 2017 and a jury member for Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI) Image category in 2018.

Aponte worked as El Tiempo's photo correspondent in Cuba from 2012 to 2019 and now resides in Havana on a permanent work visa. She works as a freelance photographer on personal projects — her story on Life aboard Cuba’s aging trains was featured by National Geographic in 2018.