Inquirer photojournalist Richard Reyes, 34

AWARD-WINNING PHOTOJOURNALIST Richard Reyes of the Philippine Daily Inquirer suffered a heart attack and passed away suddenly on April 9, 2025. He was 34. 

Reyes started as a stringer for GMA News Online, where he started to work in 2008. In 2010, he joined the Philippine Daily Inquirer, where he worked for the next fifteen years. His body of work includes photo coverage of significant scenes and periods of peril, including Rodrigo Duterte’s  “war on drugs,” the COVID-19 pandemic, the conflict in the West Philippine Sea, and the crackdown on the Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs).  

Reyes received a special citation from the 44th Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) in 2022 for his COVID-19 coverage, which featured a Jesuit priest and a patient at the Philippine General Hospital. 

His craft received international recognition, gaining him two Asian Media Awards for News Photography from the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) for two consecutive years. In 2023, he won the gold medal for his photo of former Senator Leila De Lima after her acquittal from drug charges. The following year, he received a silver medal for his photo of the “traslacion” of the Black Nazarene. 

His death is deeply felt by the industry.  Fellow photojournalists and industry co-workers expressed their affection and high regard for Reyes, describing him as a great storyteller with a beautiful soul.

Reyes is remembered for his gift for telling stories through photos. The former Inquirer chief photographer Ernie Sarmiento wrote on Facebook: “You had that look — someone hungry, not for the job, but for stories. That’s what I remember most about you: photo stories. You chased them everywhere. And you had this way of turning photos into essays. That was your thing — each set you submitted had a thread, a message.”   

Also on Facebook, Ezra Acayan, photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist, described Reyes as “one of the kindest humans ever.” 

Reyes captured the scenes in hospitals during the pandemic. The Alliance of Health Workers expressed their gratitude for Reyes, who called attention to the shortage of supplies and the long hours that made work even more difficult and dangerous for them. 

“Sa kanyang walang sawang pagtutok sa mga isyu ng mga health workers, kanyang naiparating sa sambayanan ang aming mga hamon at sakripisyo—ang mababang sahod, matinding kakulangan sa staff, kontraktwalisasyon, at kawalan ng sapat na proteksyon, lalo na noong kasagsagan ng pandemya,” the group stated.

(In his coverage of the issues of health workers, he was able to convey to the public our challenges and sacrifices–low wages, lack of health workers, contractualization, and the lack of enough protection [among health workers] during the height of the pandemic.) 

For Akbayan Partylist, the lead convenor of the Atin Ito coalition, his photos rendered the plight of the fisherfolk community who were harassed by  Chinese ships in the West Philippine Sea. 

Reyes will be remembered not just as an esteemed photojournalist but also as a champion for the marginalized, a fitting measure of his achievement in the field.