The winner of the 4th ENAIRE Foundation Youth Photography award, Alejandra González, will be at the opening exhibit of PHotoESPAÑA 2021

The winner of the fourth edition of the ENAIRE Foundation Youth Photography Award, Alejandra González (Havana, 1996), will feature prominently in the opening exhibit of PHotoEspaña 2021, which will be held at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Madrid on 3 June.

On 1 March, Alejandra González, a photographer living in Spain, was selected as the winner of the 4th ENAIRE Foundation Youth Photography Award, which was created to promote and advance one artist's career, with constant mentoring in the months leading up to the PHotoESPAÑA exhibit. One might say that the impetus behind this award is to promote the planned project and allow it to grow, so that the winning artist can continue their research.

In this edition, the jury underscored the strength of the project by such a young artist, and wanted to promote diverse cultural perspectives, since Alejandra González is Cuban.

The jury members were Beatriz Montero de Espinosa, Managing Director of the ENAIRE Foundation; Ángeles Imaña Marcos, Director of Conservation and Cultural Projects of the ENAIRE Foundation; Semíramis González, artistic director of JUSTMAD; María Primo, runner-up, 2018 ENAIRE Foundation Photography Prize and mentor of the winning artist; and Pedro Quijano, Coordinator of Cultural Projects of the ENAIRE Foundation, who served as the secretary of the jury.

For Alejandra González, having won is “a challenge and a great joy, allowing me to discover a completely new world and, more than that, letting others discover mine. I feel that this will improve my project and my professional outlook".

An award that drives a project

As already mentioned, the main goal of this award is to promote and advance the winning artist's career through constant work and follow-up in the months leading up to the JUSTMAD Art Fair exhibit, which will be held in Madrid from 8 to 11 July, 2021. It is not about rewarding a new project, but about supporting continuity and showcasing an artist by providing follow-up and materialising their production, and thinking about the space where it will be shown.

The guidance and mentoring work in this 4th edition of the Youth Photography Award will be done by María Primo (runner-up, 2018 ENAIRE Foundation Photography Award) through various tutorials.

Complementing the training will be two master classes given by Juan Millás (winner, 2018 ENAIRE Foundation Photography Prize) and Eduardo Nave (third prize in 2018) in April and May.

The work of the ENAIRE Foundation

The ENAIRE Foundation is a cultural organisation linked to ENAIRE. Its objectives include the fostering of aeronautical culture and the preservation, expansion and spreading of ENAIRE's artistic heritage. This heritage comprises a notable collection of Spanish and Ibero-American art, spanning from the second half of the twentieth century to the present day. It encompasses more than a thousand paintings, sculptures, photographs, graphic art pieces, works on paper and multimedia artworks.

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the air navigation service provider in Spain.

As a company of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, it provides en route control services for all flights and overflights from five control centres in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Gran Canaria and Palma, as well as approach services to every airport in the country.

In addition, 45 control towers receive ENAIRE's communication, navigation and surveillance services, and 21 airports, including the country's busiest, rely on its aerodrome control services.

ENAIRE is the fourth most important European air navigation service provider, and, in a clear commitment to the Single Sky initiative, belongs to international partnerships such as SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, A6 Alliance, iTEC, CANSO and ICAO.

ENAIRE is the official provider of aeronautical information in Spain.