On their continued support for editorial photographers Getty Images have awarded $10,000 to five photojournalists as part of their Grants for Editorial Photography programme.
The 2016 winning photojournalists and corresponding projects, were announced last night at Visa pour l’Image this week – they are:
• Sergey Ponomarev for Exodus
Europe is experiencing one of the most significant influxes of migrants and refugees in its history. This project looks at the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the Middle East and Africa, risking their lives along the way; who are treating Europe as the ‘promised land.’ They begin the next leg of the journey across Europe by boat, by train, by bus and on foot, from border to border, with a vague notion of reaching Germany, Sweden or Norway.
• Katie Orlinsky for Chasing Winter
This project explores how climate change is challenging communities across Alaska, and transforming the relationship between people, animals and the land. Vanishing sea ice, retreating glaciers, an explosion of wildfires, intense storms and diminishing natural habitats are pressuring hundreds of local animal species – and the people who depend on them.
• Mary Frances Calvert for Prisoners of War: Male-on-male Rape in America’s Military
According to a Pentagon survey that was released in May 2016, men make up 52% of the estimated 20,000 sexual assaults in the US military and face a completely different set of challenges than survivors who are women. This project highlights the many military rape survivors who are forced out of service and many who are even compelled to continue working for their rapists.
• Jonathan Torgovnik for The ‘Hijacked Life’ of African Migrants in Johannesburg
At a time when the world’s attention is directed towards the thousands of African migrants trying to reach the shores of Europe, little attention is given to the fact that thousands of African migrants are looking south and arriving in South Africa’s most affluent city, Johannesburg. This projects looks at the poverty that awaits these migrants, including the slum lords who run the communities they are forced to live in.
• Kirsten Luce for Border Security
The Rio Grande Valley lies just across the river from Mexico in the southernmost tip of Texas. There are over a million residents, the vast majority of which are poor with Mexican heritage. The valley is the busiest corridor for drug and human trafficking in the US. This project looks at the intersection of culture, law enforcement and immigration in this contentious and isolated corner of the world.
Getty Images’ Chief Executive Officer Dawn Airey comments: “The Getty Images Grants programme highlights our significant commitment to the craft of photography. Photojournalism plays a vital role in shining a light on complex social and environmental issues and we are honoured to support the production of ground-breaking work, as exemplified through our 2016 Editorial Grant recipients.