Mayra Martell

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Mayra Martell (b. 1979) is a documentary photographer from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

She has worked primarily in areas of Latin America and Africa subjected to forced disappearance. Her largest projects in Latin America include Falsos positivos (2009), Cerro de Petare (2007), and Ensayo de la identidad (2005-2010). Falsos positivos, carried out in the impoverished outskirts of Bogota, documents the tragedy of young men, who were kidnapped, killed, and presented as guerrilla casualties by the Colombian army. Cerro de Petare portrays everyday life in one of Caracas’ biggest and most violent slums. Ensayo de la identidad is a five-year project about the disappearance of women in Ciudad Juarez, a city whose social fabric has been torn by violence.

Martell has received many distinctions and awards. In this year At the 4th International Photobook Festival in Kassel, Germany, she won the first prize in the Reviewer Award 2011 and second prize in the Dummy Award 2011.

She is based in Mexico City and is currently working on a project called Sexy Mafia which proposes an exploration of the concept of beauty in Culiacan, Sinaloa,

Mexico´s main drug-trafficking city, which has given birth to the most important bosses in

the narco culture.

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