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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In Alphabetical Order:
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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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Yunghi Grant 