After 15 years, we catch up with our past Photography Person of the Year award-winner, Phil Borges, to see how his career has progressed.
Phil Borges was named PPOY in these pages in 1997, and could easily have won the award every year since then for his tireless work in support of the world's indigenous cultures.
"I have continued doing social documentary work for a variety of organizations like CARE, the Tibetan Rights Campaign and UN Women," he says. "My work continues to focus on the plight of indigenous people and the social and economic injustices faced by women and girls worldwide."
Much of his time is spent on his famous Bridges to Understanding program, which conducts digital photography and video workshops in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, enabling people in developing countries to tell their own stories to the rest of the world. For the last 18 months, Borges, based in Mercer Island, Wash., has been documenting the effects of climate change on the nomads and farmers living on the Tibetan Plateau. Photos from this project were published last year in his book "Tibet: Culture on the Edge."
"Whereas the final product of most of my projects used to be exhibitions and books, today more than 75 percent of my work is multimedia and film," he says. "I now take two or three interns with me on my assignments as I make films."
Learn more: philborges.com