2020 winners
Congratulations to the SIX photojournalists receiving
The 2020 Yunghi Grant!
*
Andrew Cullen
Rory Doyle
Goncalo Fonseca
Alisha Jucevic
Stephanie Keith
*
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
*
*
In Alphabetical Order:
*
***
*
ANDREW CULLEN
*
*
*
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
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
***
RORY DOYLE
*
*
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
*
*
*
*
*
***
Goncalo Fonseca
*
*
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
*
*
*
*
8
*
*
*
*
***
ALISHA JUCEVIC
*
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
*
*
*
*
*
8
8
***
STEPHANIE KEITH
*
*
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
*
*
*
*
*
***
ASSOCIATE GRANT:
$1000 donation from Timothy Hyde.
*
*
DIANA CERVANTES
*
*
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
*
*
*
***
*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
Yunghi Grant 