Smith Fund Issues More Than $70,000 in Total Grants, the Most in Any Grant Cycle Since its Inception; Judges Select Three Student Grant Recipients

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, December 12, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The W. Eugene Smith Fund has announced the recipients of its 2024 grants, including the W. Eugene Smith grant, Smith Student grant, and Howard Chapnick grant. This year’s grants collectively received more than 725 entries from 85 countries, the most since its inception in 1979. In addition, the Smith Fund will issue $72,500 in grants this year, the most in any grant cycle in 45 years.

“After 45 years, it is both exciting and humbling to see that the W. Eugene Smith grants continue to attract documentary photographers at all levels from all over the world,” said Scott Thode, President of the W. Eugene Smith fund. “But none of our success is possible without our longtime donors including the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Earth Vision Institute, and the John and Anne Duffy Foundation, along with new supporters including PhotoWings and the Joy of Giving Something,” he added.

W. Eugene Smith Grant Recipients
Adriana Loureiro Fernández (Venezuela) is the recipient of this year’s $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for her project, Paradise Lost. Her project was among 584 entries submitted from 75 countries. Paradise Lost encapsulates several stories happening at once, amounting to an untenable situation framed by both tragedy and splendor.

“Eugene Smith’s legacy carries so much of what I cherish in our photographic practice,” said Adriana Loureiro Fernández. “I hope to honor and highlight how the human spirit and its resilience carries through it all, and hope others can find warmth in restless times.”

“We were struck by the tireless efforts of photographers who are using photography as a weapon to fight against all kinds of social issues, to uncover their essence, and to connect them to tomorrow,” said Hideko Kataoka, Director of Photography at Newsweek in Japan and one of three judges of this year’s Smith Grant entries. The Smith grant adjudication panel also included Arem Duplessis, Group Creative Director at Apple, and Nii Obodai, Founder of Nuku Studio, which offers support for both emerging and established photographers through research projects, collaborations, partnerships, and other initiatives.

The judges also awarded two Finalist awards in this category. Murat Yazar (Turkey) received a $10,000 grant for his work, Shadows of Kurdistan, which explores the dimensions and depth of Kurdish culture and their political situation since Kurdistan is split among the countries of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.

Deanne Fitzmaurice (United States) also received a $10,000 Finalist grant for her story, The Unlikely Journey, the story of Iraqi refugee Saleh Khalaf, who was severely injured by a roadside bomb in 2003 as the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began. For more than 20 years, Ms. Fitzmaurice has been documenting his life, and the life of his family in the U.S. after being granted asylum.

W. Eugene Smith Student Grant
Judges in the Student grant category had difficulty selecting two top entries among the 103 entries received from 42 countries, so they selected three recipients with each receiving a $5,000 grant.

"The submissions for this year’s Eugene Smith Student grant showcased exceptional diversity and depth,” explained Munem Wasif, a documentary photographer and educator from Bangladesh and one of this year’s Student grant judges. “It was inspiring to see so many young photographers deeply committed to extensive engagement and thorough research over long periods,” he added.

Lea Greub (Germany) is one of this year’s Smith Student grant recipients and is currently attending the Ostkreuz School of Photography in Berlin. Her project, Burning Sun on Frozen Conflicts, captures life in Northern Cyprus, an island that has been divided since the civil war between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

Mosfiqur Rahman Johan (Bangladesh) is a student at Counter Foto-Center for Visual Arts in Dhaka. His project, Memories of Disappearance, documents the everyday acts of resistance undertaken by women and children whose husbands and fathers were forcibly taken by state agencies in Bangladesh.

Gerd Waliszewski (U.S., based in Germany) is also a student at the Ostkreuz School of Photography in Berlin. His story, Between the Sirens, is a documentary project about young Ukrainians in times of the Russian invasion of their country.

“All the projects the judges selected had in its core the visual exploration of these students on the vulnerability of the political systems, and their impact on daily life,” said Mariana Rettore, a member of the Student Grant adjudication panel and an Exhibitions Manager and Curator at the World Press Photo Foundation in Amsterdam.

Darcy Padilla, Associate Professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the 2010 recipient of the W. Eugene Smith grant, was also a member of the Student Grant adjudication panel.

Howard Chapnick Grant
Maleza, a photographer-led, not-for-profit association that seeks to facilitate the merging and exchange of experiences around photography in Peru, is this year’s recipient of the 2024 Howard Chapnick Grant. Inspired by the opportunities that they were able to access, Alejandra Orosco and Paul Gambin created a project in the Sacred Valley of the Incas to promote the decentralization of voices, a physical space where photographers from the region of Cusco and beyond could also access photographic education, share projects, and collaborate.

“It was amazing to learn about so many great initiatives which use photography to build communities, educate society as well to teach visual communication skills to young people,” explained Emine Ziyatdinova, co-founder and director of the NGO "Ukrainian Warchive," a digital photo archive of the Russo-Ukrainian war who judged this year’s Chapnick grant entries along with Cooperativa Sub co-founder Gisela Volá and David Y. Lee, a Senior Program Officer at the National Geographic Society.

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, Inc. is a non-profit corporation qualified as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is supported by generous contributions from The Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Earth Vision Institute, the John and Anne Duffy Foundation, the Joy of Giving Something, and PhotoWings. Additional support is provided by the International Center of Photography, and Synergy Communications.

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Louis Desiderio
Synergy Communications, Inc.
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