Essdras M Suarez
Speaker
“Panama’s Birds: Diversity, Behavior, and the Art of Seeing”
Program:
Thursday, September 17, 2026
7:15 PM– 8:45 PM
About Essdras M
Essdras M. Suarez is a two‑time Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist, educator, and author with a career spanning more than three decades. Known for his powerful storytelling, he has earned major honors including the Robert F. Kennedy International Photojournalism Award and multiple Headliners and Editors & Publishers awards. He was selected as one of only 20 artists worldwide for the dearMoon lunar mission project and has served as a U.S. Department of State expert speaker, taught the Sri Lankan press corps, and spent the past decade teaching Street Photography at the Xposure International Photo Festival in the UAE. His work has appeared in major outlets such as Le Figaro, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
After his distinguished journalism career, Essdras became Chief Photographer for million eyez© and now leads EMS Photo Adventures and Panama Photo Adventures, offering global workshops and virtual training. Based in Panama City since 2023, he continues to teach, exhibit, and pursue editorial and commercial assignments while promoting his book My Lens Lessons: A Photojournalist’s Journey from Chaos to Clarity. His career also includes hosting the TV show Enfoque Natural, serving as a Nikon Z Series influencer for Latin America, and leading workshops across the U.S., Israel, Croatia, Kenya, and beyond.
“Panama’s Birds: Diversity, Behavior, and the Art of Seeing”
Known primarily for street, travel, and photojournalism, this presentation marks a natural expansion of a long-standing photographic philosophy: strong images are built on observation, timing, and intent—regardless of subject. Panama is one of the most bird-rich countries on Earth, with nearly 1,100 recorded species in a geographic area smaller than many U.S. states. Its position as a biological crossroads, combined with an extraordinary range of ecosystems—rainforest, dry forest, cloud forest, wetlands, savannas, and pelagic environments—creates an unmatched concentration of avian life, including the harpy eagle, the largest and most powerful eagle in Latin America.
