Interview with Leslie Searles, author of “Voices of Conservation”

Photography: Voces de conservación  (2023)

Location: Ñagazu, Cerro de Pasco, Perú

Leslie Searles is a communications professional who, after completing her degree, studied a photography course in England. In Peru, she worked for five years as a photojournalist, before transitioning to freelance photography, focusing on social and environmental issues. About 12 years ago, she began engaging with issues related to the Amazon, especially with women and leaders. Her first significant involvement was through a mentoring workshop with Awajún ceramists in northern Peru, where she documented the process photographically.

The photograph Voices of Conservation was part of a commissioned work by the organization Conservation International Peru, where Leslie documented, over five months, six indigenous women leaders from different Amazonian groups, including Awajún, Shipibo, and Morumbue.

“In the winning photograph Voices of Conservation, Cecilia Martínez, from the Yanesha culture in central Peru, is featured. She has been working for a long time conducting workshops with women in her community. She works with crafts, textiles from the region, and engages in seed conservation. She teaches women how to cultivate seeds and, through them, make dyes for clothing. For this photograph, we stayed a week with each woman, accompanying them in their daily lives. With Cecilia, we went to visit some friends she worked with. The photo was taken at a waterfall, which is culturally significant for them. I took the opportunity to capture the shot there. Moreover, the work of these women is deeply connected to forest and environmental conservation, which made it important to incorporate this element into the photo.”

The importance of environmental and cultural conservation

“Nature is being lost, which is very strong, but with it, knowledge and techniques are also lost. It’s very important to preserve forests because, for example, the seeds. Sometimes there’s no tree left, so there’s no type of seed. So, it’s important not only to preserve the tree because it’s nature and helps the environment, but also because it’s culturally significant, deeply connected to their daily cultural practices; for example, it serves as an economic income source through crafts. These are elements that are very much intertwined.”

On the impact of photography in communication

“Working with photography is crucial because it has a huge reach to people. We’re all on social media, everyone has access to images, so being able to communicate these issues through an image is key. Moreover, telling a story; the image can’t stand alone, there has to be a story that accompanies it.”