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 a incisive eye, was a true please. 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:
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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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Yunghi Grant 