Regards from Barcelona

The Association of Photographers' Student Awards have been announced with Jordi Ruiz Cirera from London College of Communications named as the 2012 Student Photographer of the Year

Ruiz Cirera's series of portraits of members of the Mennonite communities in Eastern Bolivia won him the top prize. The Mennonites emigrated to Bolivia in the 50s hoping to be able to preserve their traditional lifestyle away from the trappings of the 20th century. "This series of portraits intends to showcase the relations and the family roles within the Mennonite community, as well as their deep isolation from contemporary society," says Ruiz Cirera.

Ruiz Cirera originally hails from Barcelona but graduated from the MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at LCC last year. He spent a year working on the Mennonite project, a second series from which (one shown below) won him a Merit at the AOP Student Awards.