Sebastian Liste was born in 1985 in Alicante, Spain. He obtained a Bachelors degree in Sociology at UNED, and a Masters of Arts in Photojournalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is a photographer and a sociologist working across many aspects of contemporary life in Latin America and the Mediterranean Sea area, regions where he grew up and which he knows well. He is currently living between Brazil and Spain.
Sebastian’s extensive documentary work has focused on the lives of diverse communities around the world. By 2009, when Sebastian finished his undergraduate studies, he had visited over 20 countries, including Laos, Ethiopia, Mexico, Mali, Cuba, Nepal, amongst others, where he created visual communication projects based on his deep knowledge of social issues.
On these long-term projects Sebastian, explores the profound cultural changes that occur in our contemporary world. His personal and intimate stories fluctuate between documenting daily life in struggling communities to that of his own family.
His work is enriched by the closeness to his subjects. One issue that he is particularly passionate about, and has been constant in his work, is the culture of resistance, examining how human beings transform their immediate environment to survive. He documents how contemporary life in a community is created and shaped, as we are living an important time in which our way of life is changing and disappearing at the same time, along with our feeling of belonging and identity.
In 2010, while he was attending a Master degree in Photojournalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, he won the Ian Parry Scholarship for his long term project '
Urban Quilombo', about the extreme living conditions that dozens of families face, who set up home in an abandoned chocolate factory in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. The same year he was named the young editorial photographer of the year at the Lucie Awards in New York.
Since then, his work has appeared in TIME Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Burn Magazine, Photo District News, Private Photo Review, The British Journal of Photography, Daylight Magazine, GUP Magazine and Hotshoe Magazine, amongst other publications.
Sebastian’s work has been internationally recognized in awards by POYi, The Overseas Press Club of America, Sony World Photography Organisation, NPPA, Lucie Awards, PDN Photo Annual, Paris PX3, Anthropographia Human Rights Award, Daylight/CDS Awards, CENTER Awards, Freelens Awards, The PGB Awards, Renaissance Prize, Terry O’Neill Award, and others. In 2011, Sebastian was also selected to participate in the 18th World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in Amsterdam.
In 2012, Sebastian was announced as the winner of the City of Perpignan Remi Ochlik Award, the Community Awareness Award at POYi, as one of the 30 photographers to watch at PDN 30, and received a Citation at the Olivier Rebbot Award. In addition, he received a Magnum Emergency Fund Grant to develop his new project in the Brazilian Amazon.
Sebastian’s work has been exhibited internationally in numerous shows and festivals including Look3 Festival of the Photograph (USA, 2012), ImageSingulieres Festival (France, 2012), Galerie de l’Instant (France, 2012), Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism (Germany, 2012) Visa pour L’Image (France, 2011), Noorderlicht Photo Festival (Netherlads, 2011), Angkor Photo Festival (Cambodia, 2011), The New York Photo Festival (USA, 2011), Speos Gallery (Paris, 2011), Ring Cube (Tokio, 2011), Maison des Arts du Grutli (Swizerland, 2011), Gallery 291 (San Francisco, 2011), Getty Images Gallery (London, 2010) and Host Gallery (London, 2010). His work is held in the permanent collection of The Sorigue Foundation in Lerida, Spain.
Sebastian Liste is represented by Reportage by Getty Images.
