Yunghi Grant
Photojournalist Yunghi Kim
2025 Winners
Congratulations to the TEN photojournalists receiving
The Yunghi Grant 2025
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K M Asad
Dan Agostin
Hyungrak Choi
Agnes Dherbeys
Emily Elconin
Derek French
Oyewole Lawal
Gabriela Oraa
Greta Rico
Chinky Shukla
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A special thanks to Jeffrey Smith, Director of Contact Press Images, and Bernadette Tuazon, Director of Photography at CNN Digital, who served as jurors this year.
We received a record 150 applications, and the work reviewed was exceptionally strong. Covering news and documenting intimate moments in people’s lives remain the essence of our profession. At the same time, we recognize the importance of long-term projects—not only in the arc of a photojournalist’s career but also in providing expanded storytelling opportunities and editorial stimulation that often invigorate one’s creative process.
Thirty thousand dollars in grants—$3,000 awarded to each of ten photojournalists—will be distributed in the 11th year of the Yunghi Grant.
The Yunghi Grant is deeply grateful to the five donors whose generosity made additional grants possible this year. These photojournalists care profoundly about the profession and demonstrated that commitment through their support, highlighting the strong sense of community within our field. Their contributions enabled the addition of four more grants. Three donors chose to remain anonymous, while one donor contributed enough to fund two additional grants, thereby expanding the support we are able to offer.
Special appreciation goes to David Burnett, legendary photojournalist and co-founder of Contact Press Images, and to Evan Vucci, who both generously donated his award funds to the Yunghi Grant this year, rounding out the ninth grant. Both continue to exemplify professional leadership within our industry. Yunghi contributed additional funds to support the tenth grant as she often does.
In weighing grantees, the judges were mindful of awarding repeat applicants which we believed would provide hope to those not named as grantees this year but could feature in the winning entries subsequently. Judge also noted photojournalists’ growth, both personally and professionally. The perseverance and resilience required to carry a story to its conclusion—or nearly so—were observed and valued by the judges
If you have a moment over the holidays, we invite you to visit each photojournalist’s website. Our sincere thanks again to jurors Jeffrey Smith and Bernadette Tuazon for their patience and time especially during the busy holiday season.
Happy holidays—here’s to a healthy, safe, and successful new year. We look forward to reading and seeing your work in the year ahead.
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In Alphabetical Order:
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KM Asad
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CAPTION: A clash between elephants and humans in a paddy field at Sherpur, Bangladesh on 08 April 2022.
COMMENT: Since 2021, KM Asad has been dedicated in documenting the conflict between humans and endangered elephants in Bangladesh. Asad’s very strong photography and video work focus on the conditions, migration, and effects of poaching these elephants often landing as entertainment for children of well to do families. The Yunghi Kim grant will enable him to continue this important self-assigned environmental work informing the world the critical need to protect these endangered animals.
K M Asad / Dhaka, Bangladesh / human–elephant conflict in Bangladesh / IG: @Kmasad
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Dan Agostini
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CAPTION: Mirela poses for a portrait on Bárbara’s lap during a walk in Roosevelt Park. Bárbara and Mirela started their relationship when they lived at Casa Florescer I in São Paulo, they dated for 2 months and broke up when Barbara moved from the Florescer I to the Florescer II and when Mirela decided to return to live on the streets.
COMMENT: Dan is an empathetic photographer who can connect with the transgender community as they go through transformation in a country like Brazil, where they feel there is a constant struggle for recognition and identity. The reader is effortlessly brought into his Palomas Project imagery that allows the audience to feel the emotions of his subjects, beautifully captured in quiet, sensual, and
sometimes tense moments.
Dan Agostini / São Paulo, Brazil/ Palomas Project / IG: @dn_agostini
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Hyungrak Choi
최형락
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CAPTION: Two young men raise their fists in Kharkiv. As the Ukraine-Russia war enters its fourth year, Ukraine faces relentless shelling, soaring prices, shortages of supplies, and unfair forced conscription. Despite speaking of these hardships, the young men insisted they must fight back. It felt both ironic and heartbreaking.
COMMENT: There several strong proposals documenting the on-going horrors of the war in Ukraine. Choi will continue to make heartbreaking images of “the horrors of war—as another version of history.” He has thus far rendered beleaguered Ukrainians facing immense daily struggles and violence w/ determination and grace and immense dignity.
Choi Hyungrak / Seoul, South Korea/ People of Ukraine / IG:@choihyungrak
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Agnes Dherbeys
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CAPTION: CORÉE DU SUD. Séoul. 4 mars 2023. « Génération Gangnam Murder » documente l’essor du féminisme et mène une réflexion sur le statut de la femme Coréenne au sein d’une société particulièrement conservatrice. Sur la photo, rassemblement pour la Journée Internationale des Droits de la Femme (fêtée le 4 mars. -un samedi plutôt que le 8).
SOUTH KOREA. Seoul. 4 March 2023. “Generation Gangnam Murder” documents the dynamic rise of feminism in South Korea, while reflecting on the status of Korean women in a particularly conservative society. On the picture, rally for International Women’s Rights Day (celebrated on March 4 – a Saturday rather than the 8th).
COMMENT: Agnes will use the Yunghi Grant to continue her “Maybe the island awaits” a project aiming to document the memory of the so-called 4.3 massacre at a time when few survivors remain. The mention of this massacre was forbidden until the end of the 20 th century and with dwindling number of survivors, gentle portraits and contextual photojournalism work will convey how the massacre still remains in the Jeju landscape, South Korea.
Agnes Dherbeys / Paris, France / “Maybe the island awaits” survivors of the cold war / IG: @agnes_dherbeys.
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Emily Elconin
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CAPTION: Alythia Landenberg sings along while playing with a sword prop inspired by K-Pop Demon Hunters in the living room of her home on October 20, 2025, in Harper Woods, Michigan. The sword is part of her Halloween costume, modeled after the film’s lead character. Alythia has Usher syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects hearing and vision; although she is an active and energetic child, any activity that risks head injury could potentially accelerate the progression of her condition.
COMMENT: Emily Elconin, based in Detroit, Michigan is a documentary photographer covering breaking news and features. Her long-term project explores a rare genetic condition called Usher syndrome that affects loss of hearing and progressive loss of vision. Focusing her lens on Alythia Landenberg, she is able follow the journey of this nine-year-old, beautifully capturing her day-to-day activities at her home, where she is happily seen playing and seemingly without a care in the world as all nine-year-olds do, while also effectively showing the challenging and painful impact of this debilitating syndrome on Alythia and her family. Emily has dedicated a lot of time and personal resources and will further deepen her reporting to educate more people who are dealing with this rare syndrome.
Emily Elconin / Detroit, Michigan / Usher Syndrome / IG: @EmilyIriselconin
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Derek French
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CAPTION: Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York City, makes a stop at a local Pizza Hut to shake hands with a curious youngster in East Flatbush on the first day of early voting in New York City, USA on October 25, 2025. Zohran Mamdani maintains a double-digit lead in the polls, even while most of Eric Adams’s supporters appear to have shifted to independent cadidate Andrew Cuomo.
COMMENT: French, a hard-charging photojournalist who hustles to cover the rhythm of the NYC in the best tradition of daily news gathering with an attention to color, detail and emotion that will lend itself well in documenting his project which will detail anticipated friction in Mamdani’s socialized New York occupied by the close fist of ICE.
Derek French / Jersey City, New Jersey/ Zohran Mamdani’s path to combat ICE operation / IG: @Derekfrenchphoto
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Oyewole Lawal
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CAPTION: Isma’il piping through his window, from his Bunka the name given to their homes. He is a night shift waste miner, during the day, he uses it to rest in his home at Olusosun Landfill, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.
COMMENT: Reminiscent of the multitudes in Salgado’s Serra Pelada, Lawal takes us into the immiserate lives of “Guardians of Gaia,” scavengers of the enormous waste dump Olusosun, the largest landfill in Africa. Lawal’s work is intimate as it is overwhelming but always done with dignity. Photographing at great risk to his own health, this long term project in progress, touches upon many emblematic issues of Africa from migration to economic hardships to the volatile and precarious health dangers of those toiling for pennies along the margins.
Oyewole Lawal / Lagos, Nigeria / Earth Frontliners – Guardian of Gaia / IG:@oyewole_Lawal
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Gabriela Oraa
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CAPTION: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado greets supporters atop a vehicle during a campaign rally for the presidential election, in Merida state, Venezuela June 25, 2024.
COMMENT: Gaby, a strong news shooter who photographs the human toll of the economic and political uncertainties in a repressive and militarized Venezuela. Documenting in a tense and tenuous atmosphere for journalists, her soulfully compose images are full of emotion reflecting moments of joy and pride in a landscape of turmoil.
Gariela Oraa / Caracas, Venezuela/ “Venezuela’s turmoil: mothers seeking justice” / IG: @gabyoraa
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Greta Rico
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CAPTION: Amparo Calderón is a Traditional Midwife with over 20 years of experience. She is one of the most important and recognized midwives in the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico, as well as a teacher and mentor. She is the founder of the Ixchel House of Traditional Medicine located in Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico.
COMMENTS: Greta has and will continue her exquisitely photographed project on the endangered tradition of
Midwifery in Mexico. Traditional midwives, face violence and extinction against a system that views childbirth as a hospital-based event that is part and parcel of the entrenched medical economics. Childbirth is an inherently beautiful and emotional moment and that it is contrasted with tension and violence makes this a very compelling story, strongly rendered.
Greta Rico / Mexico City, Mexico / The Last Midwife / IG: @GretaRico
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Chinky Shukla
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CAPTION: Born in 2018, four years old Taimoor Ali is bedridden with cerebral palsy and cognitive disorder. His father feels helpless as his condition has not improved since birth. “Taimoor’s limbs are so weak that he cannot sit or walk on his own. He understands our instructions and occasionally greets us with a smile. We just hope he can live the life of a normal child someday. His grandmother gives him body massage on a daily basis and helps him with basic body stretches. We are hopeful that with medicines an exercise, he can stand on his feet one day” shares Taimoor’s grandmother Nirjo Meher.
COMMENT: Photographer Chinky Shukla has been working on a long-term project on communities in India impacted by exposure to nuclear radiation. Her work entitled Buddha Stopped Smiling beautifully captures poignant scenes of people and communities affected by nuclear tests. Many of her images are taken in quieter moments showing the stillness of the day under the veil of this invisible threat to human existence. The grant will allow her to continue her work documenting residents living near power plants where residents report of “recurring patterns of disease, environmental degradation, and prolonged institutional neglect.
Chinky Shukla / New Dehli, India / Impacted by Nuclear Radiation / IG: @chinky_shukla
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Image posted with the announcement is not necessarily the photographer’s proposed project. The Yunghi Grant is a photojournalism grant. Photojournalism has a distinction from other photography in that its has the word “journalism” in the root of the word.
* We thank all of those who submitted to this year’s grant. As every year, a huge thanks to Jeffrey D. Smith for this guidance and his patience!! We had 150 submissions this year from 40 countries. 2025 is the 11th year of the Yunghi Grant.
*Grant winners’ image COPYRIGHTED to each photographer. All Rights Reserved.
* Photo Credits of photographers portraits: KM Asad credited to Rehman Asad, Dan Agostini credited to Rodrigo Picho, Agnes Dherbeys credited to Copyright Léonore Bardainne Dherbeys, Oyewole Lawol credited to Francis Ogunyemi, Greta Rico credited to Juan Carlos Reyes, Chinky Shukla credited to Vikram Choudhary
* Yunghi Grant was started in 2015 by photojournalist Yunghi Kim with earnings she made from unauthorized use of her photographs. She started this grant to help bring awareness of the importance of copyright and to encourage photographers to register their work with the US Library of Congress. Photographers owning their work is important. Yunghi is paying it forward by giving back to photojournalism – an industry that she has proudly been a member of for 42 years.
Instagram Yunghi.Kim / Threads @Yunghi.Kim / Instagram ContactPressImages
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Yunghi Grant
Coney Island, NYC 2025 © Yunghi Kim/ Contact Press Images
Happy Holidays 2025!
Note the new email for the grant submission: Yunghiphoto@gmail.com
Please read the requirements, eligibility and ineligibility.
Yunghi Grant is a photojournalism grant.
In this season of Thanksgiving, the Yunghi Grant will gift $27,000 USD in recognition of the values and principles we consider essential to our creative and journalistic well-being. This year, the Yunghi Grant will support NINE photojournalists, with each grantee receiving a $3,000 USD award.
Photojournalism is a unique profession in which photographers document history, often at great personal risk and under intense pressure. Working today requires not only a keen eye, strongly attuned compositional sense and simultaneously, a strong ethical and journalistic compass. The work requires navigating diverse, fast-moving situations, relying on sharp journalistic and street instincts, and meeting deadline pressures; to photojournalists are also entrusted with quieter, more intimate moments, when invited into people’s lives, to tell deeply human stories. These dual responsibilities underscore the crucial role of photojournalism: through captured moments, both urgent and nuanced, viewers gains a fuller understanding of issues conveyed with dynamic, telling photography.
The Yunghi Grant assesses each project proposal, and the jury evaluates the applicant as a whole — including their history of previous applications to the Grant — considering the photographer’s body of work, vision, and style. We also review photographers’ websites and Instagram profiles to gain a more comprehensive understanding of each applicant. The grant money can be to start, further or finish a project, or go towards everyday life expenses.
*Jury: We are fortunate to have Jeffrey Smith, Director of Contact Press Images, and Bernadette Tuazon, Director of Photography at CNN Digital, serve as jurors for this year’s grant.
Smith has been Director of Contact Press Images for nearly four decades. He has represented Annie Leibovitz, Don McCullin, and David Burnett, as well as many other photographers. Tuazon has been the DOP at CNN for over a decade. Her team has won Webby Awards and the prestigious Pictures of the Year International Angus McDougall Excellence in Editing Awards. She was previously a senior editor at the Associated Press (AP) for two decades. Smith and Tuazon will select nine recipients.
The Yunghi grant is grateful to the four donors who helped make additional grants possible this year. These photojournalists care deeply about the profession and showed it through their generosity, which really highlights the sense of community in our field. Three chose to stay anonymous, and one donor gave enough to fund two additional grants, expanding the support we can offer.
An appreciation to Evan Vucci, who generously donated his award funds to the Yunghi Grant this year. He continues to exemplify professional leadership through his historic coverage of the White House for the Associated Press and his steadfast defense of the First Amendment and the free press.
The Yunghi Grant started in 2015, funded with money recovered from the unauthorized use of her work. Yunghi is proud to have been part of the photojournalism community for over 42 years, and this year we celebrate the grant’s 11th anniversary.
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Copyright:
Yunghi encourages everyone to register their work (see tutorials from ASMP, Todd Bigelow’s Freelance Photographers Guide to Success and John Harrington’s Best Business Practices for Photographers). The good news is that there are plenty of lawyers who are now willing to take on infringement cases on contingency.
As you know image theft is rampant and registration is the first step toward protecting our work; it gives photographers better legal options when the work is registered. By doing so, you are also helping to map out paid image use on the Internet and protecting our industry for the next generation.
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Indonesia 1998. Photo by Paula Bronstein.
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Requirements: Please follow these rules carefully.
1) Email me a 300-word explanation/statement of why you should receive the grant. You are welcome to send a link to the work in progress or done, please do so. Do not send a link to your website unless the work in progress is on your site then only send a direct link to that post. Send to: YunghiPhoto@Gmail.Com (new email). This money can be to start, further or finish a project, or go towards everyday life expenses. Make an honest, compelling case, CONCISELY and in less than 300 words. If longer than 300 words your application may be rejected. Your statement should be in your email; please don’t send project statement as PDF. Please refrain from sending your resume or writing about at length about life. * I am posting some updated rule information because it’s become clear that many applications are not adhering to very specific application requirements.
2) One image of your work 3000 pixel, 300 resolution with publishable title and caption. The mage will be used for award winner announcement and promotion of the grant. The image submitted does not have to be from your project pitch.
3) Photographers portrait 2000 pixel, 300 resolution with photo credit and permission cleared to use in winners announcement and promotion.
4) Please list your website URL. In assessing grant candidates, we evaluate the overall applicant, the photographer’s body of work in diverse situations, as well as the applicant’s vision and style. Applicant must have a website of your work.
5) The city and country where you are based.
6) In email SUBJECT please write: Yunghi Grant 2025 (a must to keep track of emails)
7) Hint: Don’t wait until the deadline, the jurors read submissions as it comes in.
8) The deadline is Saturday (11.55 PM EST) December 13, 2025. Nine awardees will be announced on Christmas, Thursday, December 25, 2025. A Brief title and short description of your project will be listed with the announcement. As a grantee, The Yunghi Grant may use the winner’s submitted image to promote the grant and possibly release it to other media organizations that seek to do a story on this philanthropic endeavor.
*Incomplete applications will be rejected.
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Eligible:
* The Yunghi Grant is for working freelance photojournalists. For those who earn at least half of their income from freelance photojournalism.
* The Yunghi Grant is a PHOTOJOURNALISM grant. Note, at the root of the word is JOURNALISM.
* Yunghi’s friends are eligible!
* Past winners are eligible to apply again for The Yunghi Grant after 4 years.
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Not Eligible:
* The Yunghi Grant is intended for full-time working freelance photojournalists. Specifically ineligible are: full-time salaried photographers, staffers, full-time educators or students enrolled in full-time undergrad, graduate or fellowship.
* Those from other professions (i.e., doctors, lawyers, nurses) “trying to transition to” photojournalism or visual storytelling are not eligible.
* Project image(s) must not be digitally manipulated or altered through post-production processing. Routine toning of images for exposure correction, white balance, color and darkroom practice of dodging and burning is acceptable. Adding, altering, removing elements or double exposure-sandwich of a photograph is not permitted. No AI.
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Gardez, Afghanistan 2002. Photo by Paula Bronstein
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* Consider this money as a gift; should there be any tax liability, it remains the responsibility of the recipient to deal with appropriately and in accordance with IRS regulations.
* Note: The grant was initially devised in 2015 as open only to 5,000 members of the Facebook group “Photojournalists Cooperative” — an invite only group dedicated to educating photographers about copyright, the First Amendment and related professional issues. Relatedly, PJ Co-op members understand that obtaining a subject’s consent in a public venue (i.e., especially in NEWS situations) is (a) not required (b) rarely possible but primarily (c) inconsistent with the hard-fought and time-honored principles of what an independent press is about.
* All entrants, in submitting their application for The Yunghi Grant acknowledge and agree with the NPPA Ethics Code. If any applicant is brought to our attention as having violated the ethics code or has behaved in an unprofessional manner, the administrators of the Yunghi Grant reserve the right to deny or pull back the award.
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Write Ups:
*Photo District News *NPR *PhotoShelter *Duckrabbit *PetaPixel **
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The Yunghi Grant is also funded by a modest inheritance from my late mother, Dr. Ouk Lee Kim.
“My mom was a woman ahead of her time with a career in medicine when women of her generation, from her native country often didn’t have a career. Standing a petit 4 ft. 11 inches tall, she was a force to be reckoned with: strong, spunky, self sufficient, penny-wise and with a huge heart. She came to the United States in the early 1960’s from her native South Korea (her daughters would joined her 10 years later). As a single mother with three kids, she embodied what pursuing the American Dream was about. For 40 years, she served as a dedicated psychiatrist at a NY State psychiatric hospital, where she worked until her death at the age of 77 in 2010.”
* The Yunghi Grant was first held in 2015 and solely funded with from large fees recovered from unauthorized use Yunghi’s work.
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PAST WINNERS:
2024: Brian Branch-Price, Rebecca Conway, Jackie Dives, Florence Middleton, Louie Palu, Alex Wroblewski
2023: Russel Albert Daniels, Tamir Kalifa, Alejandra Rajal, Simona Supino, John Trotter, Arin Yoon
2022: Doug Barrett, Svet Jacqueline, Terra Fondriest, Stephen Maturen, Eman Mohammed, Nicolo Filippo Rosso
2021: Mark Abramson, Sharafat Ali, David “Dee” Delgado, Raquel Natalicchio, Adrienne Surprenant
2020: Andrew Cullen, Rory Doyle, Goncalo Fonseca, Alisha Jucevic, Stephanie Keith
2019: Preston Gannaway, Go Nakamura, Robert Nickelsberg, Alessandro Rampazzo, Robin Rayne
2018: Paula Bronstein, Erin Clark, Nora Lorek, Cheryl Diaz Meyer, Byron Smith, Joao Velozo
2017: Amber Bracken, Andrea Campeanu, Mikala Compton, Marko Drobnjakovic, Brendan Hoffman, Lauren Justice, Leo Novel, Michael Santiago, Andrew Seng, Ines Della Valle
2016: Frank Fournier, Amnon Gutman, Carol Guzy, Derek Hudson, Dania Maxwell, Myriam Meloni, Jackie Molloy, Rick Rocamora, Ann Wang, Rony Zakaria
2015: Jason Houge, Kenneth Jarecke, Andrew Lichtenstein, Leonie Marinovich, Michelle McLoughlin, Matt Mendelsohn, William B. Plowman, Rikki Reich, Ray Whitehouse, Angel Zayas
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Macedonia 1999 ©Yunghi Kim
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George Floyd protest. Brooklyn 2020. ©Yunghi Kim/ Contact Press Images
Updated 11/14/2025
About Yunghi
Rwandan Refugee 1994. ©Yunghi Kim
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Yunghi Kim is a photojournalist who has covered conflicts and in-depth, issue-driven stories all over the world for four decades. Intimate storytelling and giving a voice to her subjects through the camera remain important to her.
Kim came to the United States from her native South Korea at age 10. She graduated from Boston University in 1984 and began her career as a photographer at The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass. She was the first female photographer hired in the photography department. She then went on to a position staff photographer at The Boston Globe for seven years. Kim was a member of Contact Press Images in 1995 to 2008 and is presently a Special Contributor.
A turning point in Kim’s career came in 1992 when she was covering the famine in Somalia for The Boston Globe. She and reporter Wil Haygood were pinned down by heavy fighting and then taken hostage by warlord Siad Hersey Morgan. Intervention by the United Nations and the aid group, CARE, resulted in their rescue after 13 hours in captivity. Kim returned to Somalia a few days later to complete her assignment. She returned months later to cover the entry of US troops into the region. Her coverage of the Somali famine was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize that year.
Kim remains proudest of her documentation of the lives of former South Korean Comfort Women. These women, affectionately called grandmothers, were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during its occupation of Korea during World War II. In 1996 her photo essay was published worldwide and helped introduce the Comfort Women to the West. After publication, the Japanese government eventually issued a verbal apology to South Korea that included a promise to account for this atrocity in Japanese historical texts. Her work was the first intimate, behind-the-scenes profile of the grandmothers.
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Comfort Women, South Korea 1996 ©Yunghi Kim
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Kim has received some of the profession’s highest accolades, it include World Press Photo Awards, POYi awards including Magazine Photographer of the Year by POYi (one of two woman ever to receive it ), The Olivier Rebbot and The John Faber Awards from the Overseas Press Club, Visa D’Or for News from the Visa Pour L’image in France, The White House Press Photographers, Boston Press Photographers Association, Communication in Arts and Society for News Design, recipient of Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University.
Kim has also served as a speaker at the Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference at Harvard University. Past appointed member of NPPA Board of Directors (National Press Photographers Association), 2012 recipient of the United Nations’ Leadership Award in the field of photography by The International Photographic Council. She has also served on the faculty of World Press Photo, Eddie Adams and Missouri Photo Workshop.
In 2015, Kim ‘paid it forward’ by instituting a $10,000 grant to photojournalists. Ten selected photojournalists receive $1000 each based upon a project proposal or other related criteria. The grant was initially funded with copyright settlement proceeds that Kim has recouped from the unauthorized use of her work. One of the main goals of the grant is to bring awareness of copyright protection through registration. In recognition of the grant, Kim was named the 2016 recipient of NPPA’s The Clifton Edom Award for the “individual who inspires and motivates members of the photojournalism community to reach new heights.”
In 2019, Kim launched educational site TrailblazersOfLight.Com, a site dedicated to the pioneering women of photojournalism from the film era (1889 thru 1980s) – a time when few women had work that was digitized and memorialized on the web. In 2019, CNN produced a web essay honoring the Pioneering Women of Photojournalism by delving into research accumulated and aggregated on the Trailblazers site. For this she received NPPA’s 2019 Joseph Costa Award, one of NPPA’s highest honors. In 2021, she debuted a short documentary film “Unflinching Grace” which looks back on decades of reporting by three photojournalists: herself along with Carol Guzy and Paula Bronstein.
Mourning Freddie Gray. Baltimore 2015. ©Yunghi Kim
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Student Protest 1998. Indonesia. © Yunghi Kim
San Juan Pueblo Reservation 1989. © Yunghi Kim
Kirkuk, Iraq War 2003 ©Yunghi Kim
Somalia 1992 ©Yunghi Kim
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Somalia 1992
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Kelly Clarkson Show
“You teach us what it means not to look away.” To celebrate the release of her new film “Lee,” star Kate Winslet“ This sentence is dedicated to all photojournalists because we know it’s a passion to tell the story and many of us risked our lives in the harshest conditions to report from the frontline.
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Documentary “Unflinching Grace“
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Links:
PetaPixel: Yunghi Kim on the Power of Women Photojournalists
Latest: She Traveled the World, Faced Every Danger and Hardship. Now, She is Home and at Peace.
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Project: Trailblazers of Light, Pioneering Women of Photojournalism
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CNN: These are the pioneering Women of Photojournalism
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Links:
American Photo: Intimacy In Photojournalism
Ai-AP: Empower Other Photographers
NYT: Comfort Women
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Links:
NYT: Revisiting Life and Death in Africa
New Yorker: Coney Island Winter
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Nat Geo: I walked into Iraq
Full Version: I walked Into Iraq
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Links:
American Photo: Heroes of Photography
NYT: Photo Editors Who Made A Difference
NYT: Brooklyn Chinatown
DPP: Master Of Standing Ground
New Yorker Interview
New Yorker Interview
NYT: Revisiting Africa
SVA Talk/Video
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2024 Winners
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Congratulations to the SIX photojournalists receiving
The Yunghi Grant 2024
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Brian Branch-Price
Rebecca Conway
Jackie Dives
Florence Middleton
Louie Palu
Alex Wroblewski
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Once again, Yunghi, Chloe and Jeffrey feel so privileged to have read so many story proposals and have viewed some very strong work. Covering news, documenting intimate moments in people’s lives remains the essence of our profession. Yet, we recognize the importance of long-term projects, not just in the arc of a photojournalist’s career but in providing more storytelling opportunities and the editorial stimulation that often invigorate one’s process. As such we were really heartened to see creative editorial thinking and story development as well as emotionally impactful images on those stories already underway.
EIGHTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS in grants — $3,000 to each of six photojournalists — is being dispersed in this the 10th year of the Yunghi Kim Grant. We added a sixth grant again because $1,000 contribution from an anonymous donor. Yunghi contributed the rest to fill out the sixth grant. The Yunghi Grant judges are especially mindful of photojournalist’s growth: personally and professionally. Many applicants have applied several times before; even though you might not have won this year, continue to do so as stories become clearer and more focussed over time. The perseverance and resilience to take on a story to its conclusion, or nearly so, was noted by the judges.
If you have a moment over the holidays, please have a look at each photojournalist’s website and if you feel so disposed, send them a congrats. A special thanks to jurors Jeffrey Smith, director of Contact Press Images and Chloe Coleman, Senior Photo Editor at The Washington Post for their patience and time.
Working with Chloe, who is super-organized and has such an incisive eye, remains one of the true pleasures of running through many, many applications in tight deadline environment when we each have on-going work. Yunghi’s boundless generosity, in rising to the occasion to award a 6th grantee, takes the holiday spirit to a new level. Lastly, Chloe obviously recused herself from judging Louie Palu’s application; his submission was judged by Yunghi and myself. While there were many repetitive themes and similarities in proposals, Louie’s was unique in continuing create a body of insightful work in the controlled and scripted political environment of Washington, DC. Louie’s work on this subject, to date is subtle but strong; his track record as a photojournalist (and filmmaker!) is undeniable and an inspiration.
Happy holidays – here’s to a healthy, safe and successful new year. We hope to read and see you next year!
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In Alphabetical Order:
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Brian Branch-Price
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CAPTION: NEWARK NEW JERSEY: Center, the Body of fallen Black Cowboy Ronald Wright lies in state, in full cowboy dress during his cowboy funeral at Good Neighbor Baptist Church in Newark, NJ., Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. Wright a former member the New York City Federation of Black Cowboys and was also known for his for his famous Ranch House Cookie Business.
COMMENT: Brian Branch Price received his grant to continue his poignant and intimate project on Black Cowboy culture – “The Original Cowboy, An American Institution” part of his larger Black American Diaspora project which documents the depth of African American societies today — it’s issues but perhaps more so, the qualities that should make us celebrate its richness.
Brian Branch-Price / Painfield, New Jersey / America’s Black Diaspora “The Original Cowboy, An American Institution” / @Brianbrachprice
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Rebecca Conway
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CAPTION: The grandson of Kashmiri human rights activist Parveena Anghar stands under an image of his uncle Javed, Parveena’s son, who disappeared in 1997, at their home on the outskirts of Srinagar on August 4, 2019.
COMMENT: Rebecca’s photography stood out with its consistent classical style and breadth of coverage across her region. She is clearly a dedicated photojournalist, evident through her near decade-long commitment to covering civilian trauma in the Kashmir Valley. We are eager to see her put this grant to work for her project documenting civilian trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among those displaced and impacted by the Sri Lankan civil war.
Rebecca Conway / New Delhi, India / Impacted by the Sri Lankan Civil War / @rebeccajconway
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Jackie Dives
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CAPTION: Trey Helten, an overdose prevention worker, covers his face while at the hospital with pneumonia during a relapse after six years sober. Vancouver, B.C. May 6, 2024.
COMMENT: Jackie’s proposal for continued effort on her project covering the drug crisis and opioid-related overdoses in British Columbia felt pressing, as it is a topic that sadly drifts from the news cycle but not from the lives of those it affects. She is particularly apt to document this topic as it is tragically near to her, giving her a scrutinous eye towards ethical coverage. We’d love to see her use this grant to push the work to new layers.
Jackie Dives / Vancouver, Canada / Drug Crisis in British Columbia / @jackiedivesphoto
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Florence Middleton
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CAPTION: Katie Russell, a first-time mother, cries while feeding her ten-day-old son in Fairfax, Calif., on Nov. 1, 2023. Before giving birth, Russell imagined that breastfeeding her baby would be a beautiful bonding experience. But when the time came, it wasn’t what she expected. She was overwhelmed by a severe nerve pain that started in her breasts and mysteriously travelled down to her feet. She consulted lactation specialists but struggled to find answers.
COMMENT: Florence’s long-term project was another that is of the moment for the issues that will persist in 2025. By photographing women during the postpartum period, she poignantly discusses women’s health and rights by showing what is experienced after the baby is born. Her images range from deeply emotional to simple, strongly composed still-life photos that speak volumes about these women’s lives. We are glad to know she’ll put this grant to use on her eventual book of this work.
Florence Middleton / Oakland, California / “The Blood, Milk, and Tears of the American Postpartum Journey” / @flotakesphotos
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Louie Palu
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CAPTION: Two activists wear beaked masks like doctors wore in the 17th century during times of plague, seeking to draw the attention of spectators around Capitol Hill. Their message: Refusing to be vaccinated will prolong the COVID-19 pandemic. On the same day, two House subcommittees held a joint hearing titled “Disinformation Nation: Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation.”
COMMENT: While there were many repetitive themes and similarities in proposals, Louie’s was unique in continuing create a body of insightful work in the controlled and scripted political environment of Washington, DC. Louie’s work on this subject, to date is subtle but strong; his track record as a photojournalist (and filmmaker!) is undeniable and an inspiration. Chloe obviously recused herself from judging Louie Palu’s application; his submission was judged by Yunghi and myself.
Louie Palu / Washington, DC / “Political Year Zero” / @louiepalu
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Alex Wroblewski
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CAPTION: “Muslim women observe the skyline of Istanbul along a scenic overlook in Istanbul, Turkey on February 28, 2015.”
COMMENT: Alex Wroblewski received his grant to continue his Americana series which he began nearly a decade ago in the midwest. Alex has been continuing the work with his relocation to DC in between hustling daily assignment work. Alex is specifically looking away from DC at the electorate outside the beltway, documenting the impact of a Trump2 administration on those that fought to elect him.
Alex Wroblewski / Atlanta, Georgia / “Politics” / @alexwroblewskiphoto
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Image posted with the announcement is not necessarily the photographer’s proposed project. The Yunghi Grant is a photojournalism grant. Photojournalism has a distinction from other photography in that its has the word “journalism” in the root of the word.
* We thank all of those who submitted to this year’s grant. As every year, a huge thanks to Jeffrey D. Smith for this guidance and his patience!! We had 120 submissions this year from 35 countries. 2024 is the 10th anniversary.
*Grant winners’ image COPYRIGHTED to each photographer. All Rights Reserved.
* Photo Credits of photographers portraits: Jackie Dives credited to “Shari and Mike,” Florence Middleton by Jule-Sophie Hermann
* Yunghi Grant was started in 2015 by photojournalist Yunghi Kim with earnings she made from unauthorized use of her photographs. She started this grant to help bring awareness of the importance of copyright and to encourage photographers to register their work with the US Library of Congress. Photographers owning their work is important. Yunghi is paying it forward by giving back to photojournalism – an industry that she has proudly been a member of for 40 years.
Instagram Yunghi.Kim / Twitter @Yunghi / Instagram ContactPressImages
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2023 Winners
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Congratulations to the SIX photojournalists receiving
The Yunghi Grant!
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Russel Albert Daniels
Tamir Kalifa
Alejandra RajaL
Simona Supino
John Trotter
Arin Yoon
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We feel privileged to have read everyone’s story proposals and have viewed some very strong work. Covering news, documenting intimate moments in people’s lives remains the life’s blood of our profession. Yet, we recognize that long-term projects provide storytelling opportunities and the editorial stimulation to often invigorate ones process. As such we were really heartened to see creative editorial thinking and story development as well as emotionally impactful images on those stories already underway.
EIGHTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS in grants — $3,000 to each of six photojournalists — is being dispersed. We felt compelled to add a sixth grant because there were many more deserving proposals executed at high levels.
The Yunghi Grant judges are especially mindful of photojournalist’s growth: personally and professionally. Many applicants have applied several times before; even though you might not have won this year, continue to do so as often stories develop a critical mass over time. The perseverance and resilience to take a story to its conclusion, or nearly so, is always noted by the judges.
If you have a moment over the holidays, please have a look at each photojournalist’s website and if you feel so disposed, send them a congrats. A special thanks of jurors Jeffrey Smith, director of Contact Press Images and Chloe Coleman, Senior Photo Editor at The Washington Post for their patience and time.
(Note from Jeffrey: Working with Chloe, who is super-organized and has such an incisive eye, was a true pleasure. Yunghi’s Generosity in rising to the occasion to award a 6th Grantee take the holiday spirit to a new level)
Happy holidays – here’s to a healthy, safe and successful new year. See you next year!
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In Alphabetical Order:
In Alphabetical Order:***
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Russel Albert Daniels
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CAPTION: Performed annually for more that 150 years, the Abiquiú El Captivo Dance memorializes their ancestors’ fall into slavery. Dancers wear face paint, feather hair ornaments, and ankle bells. They also wear dollar bills pinned to their ceremonial clothing, signifying their ancestors’ “ransom” or rather purchase by the Spaniards—and the beginning of their years of enforced servitude. Spanish law permitted their freedom after 10 to 15 years of slavery.
COMMENT: As we are in a time that demands American society to confront its maliciously buried histories, Russell’s proposal stood out as a project whose time was right. Inspired by his own family history to delve deeper into the wounds that Spanish colonial powers inflicted on Indigenous tribes in the Southwest, the work that is made more poignant by the voices of living descendants he photographs and interviews.
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Russel Albert Daniels / Salt Lake City, Utah / “Rose was my ancestor” Ho-Chunk Nation / @russelalbertdaniels
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Tamir Kalifa
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CAPTION: UVALDE, TEXAS – APRIL 19, 2023 – Caitlyne Gonzales, who lost many of her friends in the shooting, sang and danced to Taylor Swift songs at Jackie’s grave in Uvalde, Texas, on April 19, 2023.
COMMENT: Too often, journalists move in for the breaking news of mass shootings and out after a brief period of grieving; this is not the case with the work of Tamir Kalifa. His strong photographs, created through his commitment and connection with the citizens of Uvalde, Texas, serves as an extended testimony of the long-term effects of gun violence in America.
Tamir Kalifa / Austin, Texas / Uvalde: Gun Violence / @Tamirhasacellphone
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Alejandra Rajal
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CAPTION: Chela Chuc and her daughters Chelita and Flor, members of a Mayan family, have been tending their agricultural plot, known as a “solar,” to revive it during the pandemic. The family cultivates crops for sustenance and sale. Sotuta, Yucatan. Feb, 2021. (Photo not alexandra’s grant project)
COMMENT: Alejandra’s proposal covers a topic that is too often ignored in the news: the drug war in Mexico and the effect of the associated violence on victims as well as Mexican journalists who risk their lives to cover it all. With her sensitive eye and deep knowledge of her country, we feel confident she will address this topic with the urgency and insight it deserves.
Alejandra Rajal / Mexico City, Mexico / Mexico’s Drug War / @Alerajal
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John Trotter
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CAPTION: Local environmentalist Juan Butrón pretends to drink water from the dry channel of the Colorado River as he and a group of scientists waited for the leading edge of the slowly moving pulse flow of water from the Morelos Dam, a few kilometers upstream. The release had been negotiated for years between U.S. and Mexican authorities, who hoped to learn more about the amount of water necessary to restore a small portion of the Colorado River’s desicated delta in Mexico. Within a few hours it would reach this spot, though in less than two months the riverbed would once again be dry.
COMMENT: One of the largest looming clouds that must be addressed by our photojournalism community today is climate change; John’s proposal on two points of the Colorado River does exactly that. It is not only a prescient topic, but his thoughtful visual plan, and the proof of vision from his existing images, made his work a top entry.
John Trotter / Brooklyn, New York / “Colorado River” / @unamericain
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Simona Supino
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CAPTION: Ukraine. Donetsk,2017. Children after the performance on Veteran’s Day.In Russia, patriotism is nurtured among children from an early age.
COMMENT: We received several strong proposals for coverage in Ukraine. Yet Simona’s eye, her rich, complex composition and unique proposal stood out. She addresses the nuance of identity in the region, starting well before the Russian ground invasion. This long-term project will become a more crucial record as Ukraine battles for its very survival/
Simona Supino / Warsaw Poland / Ukraine “Winds of Change” / @Simsupino
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Arin Yoon
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CAPTION: ‘To Be At War’ explores the social impacts of war on the military community. To understand my new role as a military spouse living on a remote military base, I began taking pictures to make sense of this life. I don’t recall at what point I realized that John had poor hearing. Service members are at a greater risk of hearing loss than their civilian counterparts due to repeated exposures to high intensity noise such as small arms fire and explosions from training exercises and deployments. It’s something I became accustomed to and now, my children too. John was shot in 2007 during the “surge” in Iraq. It was not until recently that the children were old enough to notice the scar on his right shoulder. “Will Daddy get shot by a sniper again?” my youngest asked. I began thinking about the trauma that we inherit through John’s experiences with war. I wanted to make a photograph of John’s hearing aid, which for me, symbolized this secondary trauma. When our son, Teo, drew close to his ear, his face close enough for John to feel the warmth of his breath, I knew this was the photograph that I was trying to make.
COMMENT: Arin was an early grant applicant whose work never left our mind. Her unique viewpoint as a military spouse and intimate eye towards trauma made us feel confident that her proposal to document healing in the Korean American community will be just as thoughtfully planned and visually sophisticated.
Arin Yoon / ”To Be At War” Korean Adoptees / Fort Leavenworth, Kansas USA / @arinyoon
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Image posted with the announcement is not necessarily the photographer’s proposed project. The Yunghi Grant is a photojournalism grant. Photojournalism has a distinction from other photography in that its has the word “journalism” in the root of the word.
* We thank all of those who submitted to this year’s grant. As every year, a huge thanks to Jeffrey D. Smith for this guidance and his patience!! We had 132 submissions this year from 40 countries, 18 US states. Next year will be 10th anniversary, it will announced in November 2024.
*Grant winners’ image COPYRIGHTED to each photographer. All Rights Reserved.
* Photo Credits of photographers portraits: Russel Albert Daniels photo by Chad Kirkland, Tamir Kalifa photo by Racien Nowak, Alejandra Rajal courtesy of Alejandra, Simona Supino photo courtesy of Simona, John Trotter photo by Robert Clark, Arin Yoon photo by Bethany Kidd
* Yunghi Grant was started in 2015 by photojournalist Yunghi Kim with earnings she made from unauthorized use of her photographs. She started this grant to help bring awareness of the importance of copyright and to encourage photographers to register their work with the US Library of Congress. Photographers owning their work is important. Yunghi is paying it forward by giving back to photojournalism – an industry that she has proudly been a member of for 40 years.
Instagram Yunghi.Kim / Twitter @Yunghi / Instagram ContactPressImages
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2022 Winners
Congratulations to the SIX photojournalists receiving
The 2022 Yunghi Grant!!
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Doug Barrett
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Svet Jacqueline
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Terra Fondriest
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Stephen Maturen
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Eman Mohammed
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Nicolo Filippo Rosso
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*We thank all those who submitted entries to this year’s grant. We received more than 110 applications for the grant.
We feel privileged to read everyone’s stories and proposals, and are always heartened to see that there is really strong editorial thinking, story development and emotionally impactful capturing of moments in news documenting intimate moments in people’s lives.
EIGHTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS in grants — $3,000 to each of six photojournalists — is being dispersed this year. We added a sixth grant this year because $1,000 was contributed from an anonymous donor. I contributed an additional $2,000 to fill out the sixth grant.
The Yunghi Grant judges are especially mindful of photojournalist’s growth: personally and professionally. The perseverance and resilience to take a story to its conclusion, or nearly so, is always noted by the judges.
If you have a moment over the holidays, please have a look at each photojournalist’s website and if you feel so disposed, send them a congrats.
Thank you all for taking part in the grant. A special thanks to jurors Jeffrey Smith and Natalie Behring. Happy holidays — here’s to a healthy, safe and successful New Year.
Peace, Yunghi
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Doug Barrett
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CAPTION: Randy and Chris share their horses and provide rides to inner city Black youth as their part of showing youth that may not otherwise be exposed to farming and ranching or what it means to be a cowboy.
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COMMENT: Doug is a natural storyteller. A former police officer and military vet, his keen people skills have created a comfortable connection with the people he photographs. Working in his community, his images fit together in a masterful puzzle to tell moving stories, often, off the beaten track in America.
Doug Barrett / Manhattan. Kansas / “Black Cowboys, Black Famers” / @400northcreative
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Svet Jacqueline
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CAPTION: Victoria, 6, holds her ears as Russian airstrikes can be heard above the underground bunker her family has been living in Saltivka, on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine located less than 10km from the frontlines.
COMMENT: Svet was the very first applicant for this year’s Yunghi Kim grant. She immediately set a high bar. One hundred -plus applicants later and her work remained at the top of the pile. Svet writes that she plans to document the lives of orphaned children as they grow up in war-torn Ukraine. She has drawn upon her personal background as an orphan in selecting this topic. The empathy she shares with the people is apparent in her work. Svets images are complicated and layered, like the stories they tell.
Svet Jacqueline / Baltimore, Maryland / “Too Young To Fight” / @___Svet
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Terra Fondriest
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CAPTION: Young Ozark Love: October 14, 2017. Taylor and Trey, ages 20 and 21, got married on land that’s been in the family for 3 generations, a pasture that belonged to the groom’s grandfather. They’d dated most of high school and had been planning this day for over a year. The ceremony was in the afternoon, followed by a potluck under a nearby oak tree. It was after that, that the younger crowd moved to where the trucks were parked to start their after party.
COMMENT: Finding stories in your own backyard is skill that should be in every photojournalist’s toolkit. Rendering them with a freshness and often-lyrical quality elevates her work. Her mastery of light imbues her images with an almost Kodachrome feel. Terra pulls back the curtain on rural life in America yet her pictures are full of tenderness and familiarity. She can make a bug crawling on someone’s knee look like the highlight of the day.
Terra Fondriest / St. Joe, Arkansas / “Ozark Life” / @terrafondriest
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Stephen Maturen
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Caption: BROOKLYN CENTER, MN – APRIL 11: A man leaps from the roof of a police cruiser as a crowd gathered at the scene where Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter shot and killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop on April 11, 2021 in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Police held a line and were confronted by community members while investigators searched the scene.
COMMENT: Stephen is a strong news photographer, using his unique talents and perspective to capture essential moments that endure. It’s hard to calmly observe chaos — no less danger — and step away with honest, technically perfect but notably distinctive images that are moving and impactful.
Stephen Maturen / Minneapolis Minnesota / Duante Wright and George Floyd / @stephen_Pix
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Eman Mohammed
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@Eman Mohammed
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CAPTION: Northern Gaza Strip, Palestine. Eight Palestinian Children in the Jabalia refugee camp, look through their window where laundry is hanging, watching a funeral procession past their house.
COMMENT: At 19, she was the only female photojournalist in Gaza, a proving ground only for the most courageous; a profession harder still for a woman. The conflict in Gaza and its multi-layered aftermath was her successful focus for many years. In her grant application Eman wrote of working on a project about Muslim women athletes. Eman has taken the work far beyond preconceptions to create an intricate story with thoughtfulness, beauty and soul.
Eman Mohammed / Washington DC / “American Muslim Women Athletes” / @emanit
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Nicolo Flippo Rosso
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CAPTION: Ahmed, 31, Ubusufaan, 20, Kamrul, 28, and Hossein, 32 (left to right), all of them of Bangladeshi nationality, stand at the border wall bars, already on United States soil but unable to move on, waiting to give themselves up to Customs and Border Protection officers in Yuma, Arizona on April 30, 2022. Although their journeys differ, most of the people in their group had left Bangladesh months before, moved to Qatar and Brazil by flights, and then on foot and buses to Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. They crossed the dangerous Darien Gap in Panama to enter Central America, where Ubusufaan said that they witnessed people dying along the route across the forest. They eventually crossed Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico.
COMMENT: A mutli-year applicant for this grant, the commitment Nico makes to documenting a story is astonishing. Deeply researched, his work is powerful because he is clearly always there, entrenched in this four-year story waiting for the moments to unfold, and he is with the people literally and emotionally, the mark of a soulful photojournalist.
Nicolo Filippo Rosso / North, Central and South America / “Exodus”/ @nico.filipporosso
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*Image posted with the announcement is not necessarily the photographer’s proposed project. The Yunghi Grant is a photojournalism grant. Photojournalism has a distinction from other photography in that its has the word “journalism” in the root of the word.
* We thank all of those who submitted to this year’s grant. As every year, a huge thanks to Jeffrey D. Smith for this guidance and his patience!! We had 116 submissions this year. I hope to do this again next year. It will be announced in November 2023.
*Grant winners’ image COPYRIGHTED to each photographer. All Rights Reserved.
* Photo Credits of photographers portraits: Terra Fondriest taken by her 10 year old daughter, Svet Jaqueline by Alex Kent, Eman Mohammed by © Bret Hartman, Nicolo Filippo Rosso by Dania Maxwell.
* Yunghi Grant was started in 2015 by photojournalist Yunghi Kim with earnings she made from unauthorized use of her photographs. She started this grant to help bring awareness of the importance of copyright and to encourage photographers to register their work with the US Library of Congress. Photographers owning their work is important. Yunghi is paying it forward by giving back to photojournalism – an industry that she has proudly been a member of for 38 years. Contact Press Images Executive Director Jeffrey Smith and picture editor/ photojournalist Natalie Behring were jurors this year.
Twitter @Yunghi / Instagram Yunghi.Kim / Instagram ContactPressImages
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2021 Winners
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Congratulations to the FIVE photojournalists receiving
The 2021 Yunghi Grant
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Mark Abramson
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Sharafat Ali
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David “Dee” Delgado
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Raquel Natalicchio
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Adrienne Surprenant
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Five photojournalists selected this year total of $15,000 in grants, $3,000 to each photojournalist. We thank all those who submitted entries to this year’s grant.
We feel truly privileged to read everyone’s stories and proposals, and are always heartened to see that there is really strong editorial thinking and story development each year with stories driven to completion in a challenging editorial market.
The Yunghi Grant is especially mindful of photojournalist’s growth: personally and professionally. The perseverance and resilience to take a story to its conclusion, or nearly so is well noted.
If you have a moment over the holidays, look at each photojournalist’s website. Thank you all, happy holidays and here’s to a healthy, safe and successful New Year.
Thank you to all those who applied this year. It is painful not to award more grants. A special thanks to jurors Jeffrey Smith and Natalie Behring.
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Yunghi Kim
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Mark Abramson
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CAPTION: Miami, Florida. The funeral for Judy Spiegel at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery.
COMMENTS: Jeffrey: Mark’s work resonates. So sensitively handled.
Natalie: Mark’s work stood out immediately. He masterfully tells complex stories
Mark Abramson / Los Angeles, California / “Cared for, for Eternal Life”: Grief in Jewish Community / @MarkAbramsonphoto
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Sharafat Ali
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CAPTION: After defying the restrictions Shite men and women take part in Muharram procession to commemorate the martydom of Prophet Muhammed PBUH grandson Imam Hussain. Mourners were brutally assaulted and detained by the Indian security forces when they try to take out an 8th day Muharram procession through the curfew city streets of lal chowk, the capital city of Srinagar, Kashmir. which has been banned by the government authorities from more than two decades since the armed struggle against Indian rule broke out in Kashmir.
COMMENTS. Jeffrey: No stranger to work that is highly awarded, Ali’s photographs take Kashmir from one of the most under-reported stories to “demonstratively strong and personal coverage.”
Natalie: Ali’s work is so personal and intimate. His photos make small moments grand, and grand moments epic.
Sharafat Ali / Srinagar, Kashmir, India / “Shouldering Innocence” / @Ibnali10
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David “Dee” Delgado
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CAPTION: NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 05: A young Muslim girl rides the subway on her way home from Mosque with her siblings on December 5, 2021, in the Bronx borough of New York City.
COMMENTS: Jeffrey: Hard-charging, intimate news/feature photography in the best of New York press photography traditions. His 50mm represents a long lens for him.
Natalie: I love David’s bold style and that he is documenting his community.
David “Dee” Delgado / Bronx, New York / @dee_bx
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Raquel Natalicchio
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CAPTION: A group of protestors countered a Pro Trump Rally in Tujunga, CA. Police officers made a line in the center of a two-way street to block each group from physical altercations. A handful of Trump supporters crossed the police line resulting in multiple fights, looked on by police with no effort to stop them. Eventually non-lethal weapons were deployed against the counter protestors side without warning.
COMMENTS: Jeffrey: A nice mix of caught moments in just the right light and framed compellingly.
Natalie: I love that I can see how hard Raquel works in her photos. She is out there, every day hustling and it shows in her images.
Raquel Natalicchio / Los Angeles, California / “Borderlands” / @RockmyworldRocky
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Adrienne Surprenant
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CAPTION: “Me like a beggar asking for something, like a refugee in my country,” says Marcel. “In the conflict, what happened, I saw a dead body on the ground. The person who had shot him had cut up the flesh, a cut muscle was shaking in the killer’s hand. He said, I will go eat that, I will go grill that. I got scared. I crawled away.” Since then, when Marcel closes his eyes at night the scene repeats itself, as vivid as if he wasn’t asleep. “At the slightest noise there is the same fear.”
COMMENTS: Jeffrey: Restless, endlessly inquisitive spirit coupled with delicate handling of light and often complex composition.
Natalie: Adrienne is clearly a relentless explorer and committed to telling stories all over the globe. She wonderfully tells stories by capturing quiet moments details.
Adrienne Suprenant / Paris, France / “Trauma in the Central African Republic, seen through nightmares and insomnias” / @adrienne_Surprenant
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*Image posted with the announcement not necessarily photographer’s proposed project.
* We thank all of those who submitted to this year’s grant. As every year, a huge thanks to Jeffrey D. Smith of this guidance and his patience!! I hope to do this again next year. It will be announced November 2022. Peace, Yunghi
*Grant winners image COPYRIGHTED to each photographer. All Rights Reserved.
* Photo Credits of photographers portraits: Mark Abramson by Katia Repina, Ali Sharafat by Syed Amir, David “Dee” Delgado by Elias Williams, Raquel Natalicchio by Dan Pellicciari, Adrienne Surprenant by Arthur Gauthier.
* Yunghi Grant was started in 2015 by photojournalist Yunghi Kim with earnings she made from unauthorized use of her photographs. She started this grant to help bring awareness of the importance of copyright and to encourage photographers to register their work with the US Library of Congress. Photographers owning their work is important. Yunghi is paying it forward by giving back to photojournalism – an industry that she has proudly been a member of for 38 years. Contact Press Images Executive Director Jeffrey Smith and picture editor at the Curious Society Natalie Behring were jurors this year.
Twitter @Yunghi / Instagram Yunghi.Kim / Instagram ContactPressImages
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2020 winners
Congratulations to the SIX photojournalists receiving
The 2020 Yunghi Grant!
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Andrew Cullen
Rory Doyle
Goncalo Fonseca
Alisha Jucevic
Stephanie Keith
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Five photojournalists selected this year total of $15,000 in grants, $3,000 to each photojournalist. We thank all those who submitted entries to this year’s grant.
Additional $1000 Associate Grant goes to Diana Cervantes from a generation donation from Timothy Hyde.
Jeffrey Smith and I feel truly privileged to read everyone’s stories and proposals, and are always heartened to see that there is really strong editorial thinking and story development each year with stories driven to completion in a challenging editorial market.
The Yunghi Grant is especially mindful of photojournalist’s growth: personally and professionally. The perseverance and resilience to take a story to its conclusion, or nearly so is well noted.
If you have a moment over the holidays, look at each photojournalist’s website. Thank you all, happy holidays and here’s to a healthy, safe and successful New Year.
Thank you to all those who applied this year. It is painful not to award more grants. A special thanks to Jeffrey Smith.
Yunghi Kim
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In Alphabetical Order:
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ANDREW CULLEN
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Caption: A member of the Armadillos Search and Rescue group swings a rosary over Gilberto Salazar Garcia’s skull and spine. The remains were discovered in Arizona’s Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in February 2020. Salazar and three of his cousins left Sinaloa, Mexico to cross into the United States in 2018.
Judges Comment: We have followed Andrew Cullen’s project for several years. He has been quietly working on “What Remains” a visual elegy to undocumented migrants along the US-Mexico border. Its been a pleasure to see the evolution of his project as his style evolved and the project with it. We appreciate Andrew’s unique vision and approach to this hard-to-photograph story; it is important work. The Yunghi Grant proudly supports Andrew so he may finish its final chapter. Note: His project is not on his website and hasn’t been made public.
Andrew Cullen / Los Angeles, California USA / “What Remains”/ @acullenphoto
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RORY DOYLE
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Caption: Backwater flooding surrounds a farm in the lower Mississippi Delta on June 14, 2019. For nearly six months in 2019, the rural lower Mississippi Delta was flooded due to monumental rainfall and a historically high Mississippi River — combined with the key factor of drainage pumps that were blocked by the EPA out of fear of destroying a neighboring wetland forest. Roughly 500,000 acres remained under water that had nowhere to go without the pumps.
Judges Comment: We have also followed Rory’s work for last few years. Stories in rural America are often overlooked. Yunghi Grant is happy to support Rory’s project that focuses on the flooding in lower Mississippi Delta. Rory writes: “I’m continuing my ongoing coverage of this largely overlooked story. Being based an hour north of this flood zone, I have witnessed how difficult it is to get this rural story the international attention it deserves. Based in rural America, I will take any help I can get to publish stories from one of the most economically-challenged, forgotten and overlooked regions.”
Rory Doyle / Cleveland, Mississippi, USA / “Downpour and Virus in Mississippi”/ @rorydoylephoto
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Goncalo Fonseca
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Caption: Maria Pereira’s eldest son (left) looks on as a moving crew takes her things from the wharehouse where the landlord dumped her things. After visiting her son in Luxemburg, the 78 year old Maria Pereira found the lock on the door of her home changed. She lived on the streets for two week during the harsh winter. Graça, Lisbon, November 2019
Judges Comment: The Yunghi Grant has followed Goncalo Fonesca’s eloquent vision for last few years. We love his intimate and subtle style applied in a humanistic way to explore housing insecurities and the insidious interplay of gentrification. Goncalo writes in his proposal that his project portrays “anxiety and fear of not having a stable roof over one’s head in a country that is a popular tourist destinations with hottest real estate market in Europe.” The Yunghi Grant is happy to help support Goncalo with large exhibition prints.
Goncalo Fonseca/ Lisbon, Portugal / “New Lisbon” / @goncalo.fonseca
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ALISHA JUCEVIC
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Caption: Izel Ramos-Gonzalez, 7, looks at the damage in her grandmother’s backyard in Phoenix on Saturday, Sept. 12, after the Almeda Fire swept through Southern Oregon communities like Phoenix and Talent on Tuesday night. Izel and her parents had to evacuate their home in Medford earlier this week due to wildfires in the area, but have since been able to return to their home. They stopped by her grandmother’s to pick up some items to bring back for her.
Judges Comment: When forest fires struck the hometown of Alisha’s family in Southern Oregon, Alisha’s sister lost her house but her brother’s home survived after working tirelessly to battle back flames that surrounded the house. In the tradition of long line of female photographer with grit and talent, she covered the fires for the NYT and stayed with her brother, cooking on a camp stove and using a battery pack to run her laptop never missing a deadline. All of this rings as familiar work routines photojournalists must navigate while producing astounding and soulful work. Her work reflects an ability to document and navigate a wide range of news and feature situations. Alicia transitioned recently to freelance from her part-time newspaper job. Alisha said “Even after national attention fades, I am committed to documenting how this tragedy has affected my family’s hometown.”
Alisha Jucevic / Portland, Oregon USA /“Almeda Fire Aftermath” / @alishajucevic
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STEPHANIE KEITH
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Caption: A Trump supporter points out the person he thinks attacked him and his daughter (left) during a pro-Trump rally in Times Square in New York, New York, U.S. October 25, 2020. Several counter protesters were arrested during the afternoon of clashes in Times Square.
Judges Comment: Yunghi has always admired Stephanie’s grit. Stephanie is a hard charging news photographer and in an era when fewer women are embracing hardcore, breaking news in photojournalism. Stephanie also initiates many of her stories that lead to assignments. She is a single mom of two children and the epitome of a superwoman with all the toughness, talent and sensitivity required in both her day and night jobs! In the Trump era, Yunghi Grant supports the continuation of her work which focuses on polarization in America she’s worked on the last few years.
Stephanie Keith / New York City, USA / “Never the Twain Shall Meet” / @steffikeith
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ASSOCIATE GRANT:
$1000 donation from Timothy Hyde.
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DIANA CERVANTES
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Caption: Adelina Sosa, long time volunteer with Placitas Wild, says goodbye to a free roaming horse, Happy Boy, who she cared for many years out in the preservation. He, along with other free roaming horses waited to be transported to Mustang Camp to be trained, as that is the best hopes for rehoming them. Sosa appreciates the connection she built with the wild horses. ÒI like animals. I observe them, I try to understand them. I read them and respect their boundaries, their space Ñ they also do that with us,Ó she said. This photo series focused on documenting the women of Placitas Wild as they attempted to rehome 87 of their free roaming horses from a preserve on San Felipe Pueblo in New Mexico after the Pueblo unexpectedly ended their partnership.
Judges Comment: One of the talents of Diana that comes through in her photographs is making people feel at ease. Her subjects are clearly comfortable with her. “Likable” is an important character trait of any profession but even more so in photojournalism in terms of allowing people you photograph to trust you and allow access. Yunghi Grant is happy to support her this year with a Associates Grant of $1,000, a generous donation from Timothy Hyde. We are excited to watch Diana continued journey as a photojournalist. Note: Associate Grant winners are not bound by 4-year moratorium on re-applying for the Main Grants.
Diana Cervantes / New York City, USA / “NYC Harbor” / @dee_sea_photo
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*Image posted with the announcement not necessarily photographer’s proposed project.
* We thank all of those who submitted to this year’s grant. As every year, a huge thanks to Jeffrey D. Smith of this guidance and his patience!! I hope to do this again next year. It will be announced November 2021. Peace, Yunghi
*Grant winners image COPYRIGHTED to each photographer. All Rights Reserved.
* Photo Credits of photographers portraits: Andrew Cullen by Kyle Grillot, Rory Doyle by Christopher P. Michel, Gonzalo Fonseca by Francisco Fidalgo, Alisha Jucevic by Hannah Yoon, Stephanie Keith by Stephanie Keith, Diana Cervantes by Jonathan Gamboa.
* Yunghi Grant was started in 2015 by photojournalist Yunghi Kim with earnings she made from unauthorized use of her photographs. She started this grant to help bring awareness of the importance of copyright and to encourage photographers to register their work with the US Library of Congress. Photographers owning their work is important. Yunghi is paying it forward by giving back to photojournalism – an industry that she has proudly been a member of for 36 years. Yunghi Kim and Contact Press Images Executive Director Jeffrey Smith were jurors of this grant.
* The grant was initially devised in 2015 as open only to 5,000 members of the Facebook group “Photojournalists Cooperative” — an invite only group dedicated to educating photographers about copyright, the First Amendment and related professional issues. Relatedly, PJ Co-op members understand that obtaining a subject’s consent in a public venue (i.e., especially in NEWS situations) is (a) not required (b) rarely possible but primarily (c) inconsistent with the hard-fought and time-honored principles of what an independent press is about.
Twitter @Yunghi / Instagram Yunghi.Kim / Instagram ContactPressImages
Updated 12/25/2020
2019 WINNERS
Congratulations to the Five photojournalists receiving
The 2019 Yunghi Grant
Preston Gannaway
Go Nakamura
Robert Nickelsberg
Alessandro Rampazzo
Robin Rayne
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Five photojournalists selected this year total of $15,000 in grants, $3,000 to each photojournalist. We thank all those who submitted entries to this year’s grant.
Jeffrey Smith and I feel truly privileged to read everyone’s stories and proposals, and are always heartened to see that there is really strong editorial thinking and story development each year with stories driven to completion in a challenging editorial market.
The Yunghi Grant is especially mindful of photojournalist’s growth: personally and professionally. The perseverance and resilience to take a story to its conclusion, or nearly so is well noted.
If you have a moment over the holidays, look at each photojournalist’s website. Thank you all, happy holidays and here’s to a healthy, safe and successful New Year.
A special thanks to Jeffrey Smith.
Yunghi Kim
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PRESTON GANNAWAY
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Preston Gannaway © 2018
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Caption: Rich and EJ in Boy Scouts uniforms, 2018 EJ St. Pierre, 16, and his faterh Rich pose for a portrait together before EJ’s Boy Scout board of review in Chichester, NH, on Friday, May 18, 2018. He is working his way to become an Eagle Scout.
Judges Comments: Gannaway has continued photographing a story for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2007. It is story initially of a young family dealing with the terminal cancer of their mother, Carolynne, all the while with the demands of raising a young family. For the last 15 years Preston has continued to document this family, specifically following then 4-year old EJ St Pierre as he grew up. Its a story that started out as a daily assignment about loss and watching the family heal. Gannaway says “The beginning of this project was largely about death, it is now an on-going piece about surviving loss and what it means to inhabit a life.” This year is an important year in thr life of the family as EJ will graduate from high school!
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Preston Gannaway / San Francisco, California / ‘Remember Me” / Instagram Pgannawayphoto
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GO NAKAMURA
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© Go Nakamura
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Caption: A group of Central American migrants hide on Mexican side of Mexico/US border wall, try not to be spotted by US border patrols and wait to find a good timing to jump the border fence. About an hour later they found a water pipe which leads to the US side of the wall also big enough for a person to crawl through. Soon after few of them reach to the US side, they were apprehended by US border patrols. Most of them had to crawled back to the Mexican side. The water pipe was then fenced and blocked on the next day. On December 25, 2018 in Tijuana, Mexico
Judges Comment: One of the hardest working photojournalists today. He gives a new definition to the notion of hustling photojournalists being there in the fray. The Yunghi Grant is supporting Go’s continued coverage of border crisis. We want to recognize, that Go is one of five journalists named in an ACLU lawsuit defending the First Amendment against the US Department of Homeland Security’s attack on press freedom by interrogating journalists.
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Go Nakamura / Houston, Texas / “Border Crisis” / Instagram GoNakamu
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ROBERT NICKELSBERG
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©Robert Nickelsberg 2019
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Caption: NEBAJ, GUATEMALA – JANUARY 4: Pedro Cedillo Marcos holds two pictures taken by Robert Nickelsberg in January 1984 when the three young children sat for a picture in Nebaj, Guatemala and were revisited on January 4, 2019. The picture is with the older sister (name unknown though alive today), left, Pedro Cedillo Marcos, 2, center, and Marcelina Cedillo Marcos, 4, right.
Judges Comment: Reacquainting with a long-forgotten story in your archive is as exciting as the day you first photographed it and as consuming as shooting new work. The Yunghi Grant is proud to support the continuing work of Robert Nickelsberg to help find subjects he photographed 37 years ago in Guatemala’s Civil War. Robert’s book “Afghanistan: A Distant War” is indicative of his sense of commitment to a long story. His first trip to Afghanistan was in 1988 culminating in an epic book in 2017 on Afghanistan.
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Robert Nickelsberg / Brooklyn, New York / “Guatemala: Recovering the Past ” / Instagram Nickelsberg
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ALESSANDRO RAMPAZZO
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©Alessandro Rampazzo
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Caption: For the past four years and since the birth of her twins, Nita has been victim of violence from her boyfriend and father of the kids
Judges Comment: Against the backdrop of country known as the”happiest country in the world” with its government coalition led by an almost all female group of ministers, “Love Notes” follows the story of Nita, a 34-yr old Finnish mother of two who’s been living in an abusive relationship for four years, since the birth of her twins. Exactly a year ago she decided to end the relationship and recapture her life. Rampazzo, working only in available light, documents Nita’s daily existence with remarkable sensitivity but with a timing and intuitive composition putting the viewer intimately inside the story like we haven’t seen in a long time. The Yunghi Grant supports the completion of the work. *
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Alessandro Rampazzo / Helsinki, Finland / “Love Notes” / Instagram AlessadroRampa
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ROBIN RAYNE
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©Robin Rayne
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Caption: Locked inn the forensic unit of East Central Regional Hospital in Augusta, Ga, for nearly 11 years without ever being charged with a crime, Maurice Smith hopes someone can help him. With, 37, who has a developmental disability as well as multiple sclerosis, lives among other inmates who have been deemed not guilt by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial. His doctors, social workers and lawyers all agree there is no reason he can’t leave —except there is no place for him to go. Smith asks anyone who will listen the question uppermost in misdirects mind the past 11 years: “When am I getting out of her.”
Judges Comment: Yunghi had gotten to know a bit of Robin’s history in researching the “Silent Generation” list of women trailblazers in photojournalism (site to be launched in January). Robin’s commitment to her continuing work on issues of disabilities rights, gender diversity and social justice is admirable.
Robin Rayne is a trailblazer: “Today, my gender transition is no longer an issue but the scars from mocking and rejection never really go away. I was part of a ‘silent generation’ of my own, I guess. The net gain, aside from living and working with authenticity, is that I’ve experienced this craft from both sides of the gender divide,” wrote Robin Rayne.
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Robin Rayne / Canton, Georgia / “Olmstead at 20: Promise Kept, Promise Unfulfilled” / Instagram Robin.Rayne
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Winners:
2018: Paula Bronstein, Erin Clark, Nora Lorek, Cheryle Diaz Meyer, Byron Smith, Joao Velozo.
2017: Amber Bracken, Andrea Campeanu, Mikala Compton, Marko Drobnjakovic, Brendan Hoffman, Lauren Justice, Leo Novel, Michael Santiago, Andrew Seng, Ines Della Valle.
2016: Frank Fourkier. Amnon Gutman. Carol Guzy. Derek Hudson. Dania Maxwell. Myriam Meloni. Jackie Molloy. Rick Rocamora. Ann Wang. Rony Zakaria.
2015: Jason Houge. Kenneth Jarecke. Andrew Lichtenstein. Leonie Marinovich. Michelle McLoughlin. Matt Mendelsohn. William B. Plowman. Rikki Reich. Ray Whitehouse. Angel Zayas.
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*Image posted with the announcement not necessarily photographer’s proposed project.
* We thank all of those who submitted to this year’s grant. As every year, a huge thanks to Jeffrey D. Smith of this guidance and his patience!! I hope to do this again next year. It will be announced November 2020. Peace, Yunghi
*Grant winners image COPYRIGHTED to each photographer. All Rights Reserved.
* Photo Credits of photographers portraits: Rampazzo portrait by Neha Nirve, Nakamura portrait by Amor Alfiky, Nickelsberg portrait by Audrey Jiajia Li, Rayne portrait by Stanley Leary, Preston Gannaway portrait by Hunter Wiggins.
* Yunghi Grant was started in 2015 by photojournalist Yunghi Kim with earnings she made from unauthorized use of her photographs. She started this grant to help bring awareness of the importance of copyright and to encourage photographers to register their work with the US Library of Congress. Photographers owning their work is important. Yunghi is paying it forward by giving back to photojournalism – an industry that she has proudly been a member of for 35 years. Yunghi Kim and Contact Press Images Executive Director Jeffrey Smith were jurors of this grant.
Twitter @Yunghi / Instagram Yunghi.Kim / Instagram ContactPressImages
Updated 12/ 25/ 2019
2018 Awardees
Congratulations to the SIX photojournalists receiving The 2018 Yunghi Grant!
Paula Bronstein
Erin Clark
Nora Lorek
Cheryl Diaz Meyer
Byron Smith
Joao Velozo
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We thank all those who submitted entries to this year’s grant; it was a challenge to narrow it even to six .So we added one additional grant to award six photographers this year total of $12,000 in grants, $2,000 to each photojournalist.
Additional, a $1,000 partner grant goes to Steven Frischling, from a generous $500 donation from Manuello Paganelli and I matched it with $500 from in a new Partnership Grant.
Jeffrey Smith and I feel truly privileged to read everyone’s stories and proposals, and are always heartened to see that there is really strong editorial thinking and story development each year with stories driven to completion in a very challenging editorial market.
One of the photographers received his grant because of considerable evolution of his project from past years. The Yunghi Grant is especially mindful of photojournalist’s growth: personally and professionally. The perseverance and resilience to take a story to its conclusion, or nearly so is well noted.
If you have a moment over the holidays, look at each photojournalist’s website. Note too, the caliber of photojournalists who navigate a wide range of situations from breaking news to intimate moments.
Thank you all, happy holidays and here’s to a healthy, safe and successful New Year.
Yunghi Kim
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PAULA BRONSTEIN
© Paula Bronstein
*Opytne: Donetsk region: Raisa Petrovna, 80 and her husband Stanislav Vasilyevich live in a village often caught in the crossfire between Ukrainian and Pro-Russian separatists, too close to the contact line. Raisa says that tanks were driving in front of their home in the first year of the war, now they have learned to live with the sound of shelling and gunfire daily. “We were sitting last home, screaming at them not to kill us!” Riasa said. Her husband was injured twice by shrapnel, once in his abdomen, requiring surgery. He suffers from a hernia that keeps on growing. Stanislav suffers from dementia now along with his other medical issues. “I have to treat him as a child, I am so sorry that he is like this now, I am afraid to leave him even for a moment.” Raisa stated. Their two sons live on the other side of the contact line unable to visit often because of the war. Their village, Opytne depends on humanitarian organizations to help the elderly who refuse to leave their homes and are trapped in a dangerous situation.
Paula Bronstein.Com / Bangkok, Thailand / “Lives Frozen by Conflict” Ukraine.
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ERIN CLARK
©Erin Clark
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Russell rests in the back of his minivan after collecting plants in the Northern Alberta bush. Russell is a Cree healer and was collecting the plants to make Thunder Medicine, a traditional healing method he learned from his grandfather. “If this doesn’t heal me, nothing will,” said Russell, who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Erin Clark.Com / Boston, USA / “Medicine Man” Northern Alberta.
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NORA LOREK
©Nora Lorek
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Dandan, Wessam and Ibrahim from Daraa in Syria met in Calais in the fall of 2015 and moved in together shortly thereafter. Back then there were about 3500 refugees in the camp and new people arriving every day. The first few months they tried to get on trains and trucks, but in the end they managed to collect money and pay for smugglers. Even with smugglers they failed dozens of times. Since July 2016, all three are with their relatives in the UK. The Jungle was a refugee camp in the vicinity of Calais, France. According to Help Refugees 9106 men, women and unaccompanied children were living in mud, tents or temporary shelters they’d build themselves and decorate as best as possible. They all had the same goal: to enter the UK. In October 2016 the eviction of the Jungle started and after three weeks the camp was demolished
Nora Lorek.Com / Gothenburg, Sweden / “After the Jungle” refugee camp in Calais.
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CHERYL DIAZ MEYER
© Cheryle Diaz Meyer
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Hungry, tired and dehydrated, a Rohingya refugee carries his unconscious wife to a nearby auto rickshawÊas theyÊflee toÊBangladesh, in Teknaf Upazila, on Oct. 4, 2017. Many refugees spoke of drinking salt water for several days to survive and fights erupting as they waited for boats to ferry them from Myanmar to Bangladesh. To date, over 740,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in the latest spate of violence. The crisis that began as a counterattack by the Myanmar government against Rohingya militants who had attacked several police bases on August 25, turned into a full scale “ethnic cleansing,” according to the UNHCR, as the army and local Buddhists firebombed, raped and murdered across Rakhine state, the predominantly Muslim western region of Myanmar. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has a predominantly Buddhist population, and the Rohingya are a Muslim minority who are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh–they have not right to vote, and are restricted in access to education, healthcare, travel, work and marriage. Myanmar’s de Facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has been criticized for failing to condemn the violence.
Cheryl Diaz Meyer.Com / Washington, DC, USA / “Survivors of Enslavement” Filipina Comfort Women.
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BYRON SMITH
©Byron Smith
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Lafi, 63, (no last name is given) tries to calm his grandson Yousef, 2, as he and his family joined other Internally Displaced People fleeing ISIS from Mosul as Iraqi Security Forces move to clear the city of the terror network, at Khazir Camp in Kurdistan Region.
Byron Smith.Com / Brooklyn, USA / Mosul “They Called Us Kafir” book project.
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JOAO VELOZO
©Joao Velozo
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The Brazilian semi-arid is home to more than 23 million people. It is the largest and most populous semi-arid region in the world. It’s been six years since the last rainy season, and no one knows when it will rain again. A cow is being rescued from the canal at the Barreiro district in Sertania, Pernambuco.
Joao Velozo.Com / Recife, Brazil / Drought in Brazil’s Northeast
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PARTNERSHIP GRANT $1,000
A generous $500 donation from Manuello Paganelli and matched with $500 from Yunghi Kim.
STEVEN FRISCHLING
© Steven Frischling
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Water sprays all around, as volunteer
firefighters from the Clinton and East Lyme Fire Departments advance a hose line through a burning house, while battling a multi-alarm structure fire, Thursday, March 1, 2018, in Old Lyme, CT.
Steven Frischling. com / New London County, Connecticut. / “The World Of Volunteer Firefighters”
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PARTNER GRANT AT NSC $1,000 ANNOUNCEMENT:
With financial support provided by Yunghi Kim and Todd Bigelow, the Photojournalists Cooperative Facebook Group will be awarding two $500 grants at the Northern Short Course. The grants will be chosen and awarded by NSC during the Saturday evening awards dinner March 9, 2019.
The Photojournalists Cooperative, a private Facebook group with over 5000 photographers, is dedicated to supporting and advancing the careers of freelance photojournalists through education about business matters including copyright, licensing, contracts and other pertinent issues. Yunghi and Todd believe that freelance photojournalists who understand the industry are able to better navigate the business side of photography not only serve themselves better but elevate the professional of our industry overall. The NSC/PJ Cooperative Grant recognizes those who have done so through their association with the Northern Short Course.
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Judges Comments:
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Winners:
2017: Amber Bracken, Andrea Campeanu, Mikala Compton, Marko Drobnjakovic, Brendan Hoffman, Lauren Justice, Leo Novel, Michael Santiago, Andrew Seng, Ines Della Valle.
2016: Frank Fourkier. Amnon Gutman. Carol Guzy. Derek Hudson. Dania Maxwell. Myriam Meloni. Jackie Molloy. Rick Rocamora. Ann Wang. Rony Zakaria.
2015: Jason Houge. Kenneth Jarecke. Andrew Lichtenstein. Leonie Marinovich. Michelle McLoughlin. Matt Mendelsohn. William B. Plowman. Rikki Reich. Ray Whitehouse. Angel Zayas.
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*Image posted with the announcement not necessarily photographer’s proposed project.
* We thank all of those who submitted to this year’s grant. As every year, a huge thanks to Jeffrey D. Smith of this guidance and his patience!! I hope to do this again next year. It will be announced November 2019. Peace, Yunghi
*Grant winners image COPYRIGHTED to each photographer. All Rights Reserved.
* Photo Credits of photographers portraits: Erin Clark by Kelsey Brunner, Cheryle Diaz Meyer by Conchitina Miguel, Stephen Frischling by Sean D. Elliot.
* Yunghi Grant was started in 2015 by photojournalist Yunghi Kim with earnings she made from unauthorized use of her photographs. She started this grant to help bring awareness of the importance of copyright and to encourage photographers to register their work with the US Library of Congress. Photographers owning their work is important. Yunghi is paying it forward by giving back to photojournalism – an industry that she has proudly been a member of for 34 years. Yunghi Kim and Contact Press Images Executive Director Jeffrey Smith were jurors of this grant.
* Interested in sponsoring a “Partnership Grant” next year? Please contact Yunghi@YunghiKim.Com.
Updated 12/ 25/ 2018
Yunghi Grant 