HOUSTON, TX.- The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston announced Yael Martínez as the first winner of the newly established Edelman Impact Award in Photography. Martínez will receive a cash prize of $50,000 in recognition of his achievements in photography.

Established by Cathy Edelman, the Edelman Impact Award in Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will annually recognize an outstanding emerging or mid-career photographer with a demonstrated commitment to social issues and exceptional visual storytelling. Selected by a panel of jurors with expertise in the field of photography, each year’s winner will receive an unrestricted gift of $50,000 to support their work. The award recipient and MFAH curatorial team will collaborate to make a selection of the recipient’s work to enter the museum’s collection.

“After 35 years of working with mid-career and emerging photographers, I’m thrilled to support them in a new way,” commented Cathy Edelman, benefactor of the award.

Following the closure of Catherine Edelman Gallery, which first opened its doors in Chicago in 1987, Edelman aimed to continue her investment in emerging artists, reaching out to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as a partner. “The Edelman Impact Award recognizes a photographer whose work doesn’t shy away from political or social issues. I’m proud to present the first award to Mexican photographer Yael Martínez, whose work addresses the violence of organized crime in his country. Presenting this in conjunction with the MFAH makes it especially meaningful.

Longtime MFAH photography curator Anne Wilkes Tucker took me under her wing early on, and decades later I have the joy of working with MFAH Curator Lisa Volpe, who continues that extraordinary legacy.”

Award winner Yael Martínez is based in Guerrero, Mexico. His work illustrates the resilience of Mexican communities, through a blend of documentary and conceptual photography. Often sketching on, poking through, or scratching his photographic prints, Martínez aims to craft narratives of change rather than depict a singular moment. For the artist, these interventions marring the photographic surface not only symbolize the struggles of his subjects, but also represent their resistance and communal hope.

The panel of jurors for the inaugural Edelman Impact Award was comprised of Deborah Willis (Professor of Photography and Imaging New York University, Tisch School of the Arts), Susan Meiselas (Photographer and President of the Magnum Foundation), Corey Keller (Independent Photography Curator), and Lisa Volpe (Curator, Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston).

Gary Tinterow, Director and Margaret Alkek Williams Chair of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, noted, “Since its beginnings in the 1970s, the photography collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has embraced both emerging photographers and art that seeks to improve society by revealing injustice. The establishment of the Edelman Impact Award celebrates this history and supports artists who have dedicated their art to social issues.”

The photography collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is comprised of more than 38,000 works spanning the full history of the medium from its invention to the present day. Selections from the collection are always on view in the photography galleries of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building. Founded as a separate curatorial department in 1976 under the stewardship of curator Anne Tucker, the MFAH photography department has a long- standing commitment to supporting the work of early and mid-career photographers.