Inna Mkhitaryan

December 10, 2012, 12:26 pm

≫ Next: Elyor Nematov

Year

2012

Location

Armenia

Amount

$3,500

Term

6 months

Grantee URL

http://innamkhitaryan.com/

Inna Mkhitaryan will examine the underlying economic, social, and psychological factors that give rise to human trafficking in Armenia. Mkhitaryan seeks to challenge the stigma against trafficking victims who are often blamed for their own plight.

Originally trained in TV journalism at Yerevan’s State Pedagogical University, Mkhitaryan began working as a documentary photographer in 2005 after attending a World Press Photo photojournalism seminar organized by the Caucasus Media Institute. Since then, she has worked freelance for National Geographic Traveler Armenia, BBC News, Newsweek, and ArmeniaNow.com, among others. Her photographs have been exhibited in Armenia and Russia and in 2010 Mkhitaryan attended the International Summer Photo Workshop with photographer Pieter ten Hoopen in St. Petersburg, Russia. She received 3^rd prize for the "On the Caucasus Roads" photojournalism award at the 2011 PhotoVisa International Festival in Krasnodar, Russia as well as 1^st prize for the 2010 “Na/Ne Media Award” from the British Embassy Yerevan, the OSCE Office in Yerevan, and the United Nations Population Fund. Mkhitaryan co-founded the Ruben Mangasaryan Memorial Foundation in 2010 to support documentary photography in the region.

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Elyor Nematov

December 10, 2012, 12:31 pm

≫ Next: Dina Oganova

≪ Previous: Inna Mkhitaryan

Year

2012

Location

Kyrgyzstan

Amount

$3,500

Term

6 months

Grantee URL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elyor/

Elyor Nematov will document the experience of Kyrgyz labor migrants traveling to and working in Russia and the impact of their absence has on their families who remain in Kyrgyzstan. Nematov’s goal is to reveal the underlying social, economic, and human rights issues surrounding forced migration, for both the receiving country (Russia) and the sending country (Kyrgyzstan).

Nematov, an Uzbek citizen living in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, currently works as a freelance photojournalist and conducts documentary photography workshops, training students to produce stories relevant to Central Asia. Previously, he worked as photo editor for Kloop Media and as a photographer and reporter for business and sports magazines in both Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Nematov attended master photography classes with Nadia Sheremetova, Shaukat Boltaev, and Umida Akhmedova. In 2008 Nematov’s work was selected for the group show, "Photographers of Uzbekistan: Culture and Traditions of Central Asia” at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in 2007 for the group show, “All are Different, All are Equal: Traditions and Tolerance in Bukhara" at the Tashkent House of Photography in Uzbekistan. His first solo show, "Children of Bukhara: We are All the Flowers of One Garden," was held that same year at the French Cultural Center in Tashkent. Nematov participated in Tashkent’s 3^rd International Biennale in 2005 and won 1^st place in the Central Asian photography contest "People and the Help the Environment" organized by IREX.

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Dina Oganova

December 10, 2012, 12:39 pm

≫ Next: Fraidoon Poya

≪ Previous: Elyor Nematov

Year

2012

Location

Georgia

Amount

$3,500

Term

6 months

Grantee URL

http://www.dikarka.ge/

Dina Oganova’s project will examine a generation of Georgian youth who are growing up in a post-Soviet Union country and who have little connection to their country’s history. Oganova will also interview and document the relationships these youth have with their parents’ generation. Through her project, Oganova aims to better understand how her contemporary Georgians understand their past and their future.

Oganova is a freelance photographer. She has worked as a photojournalist for Georgian news agencies and magazines and has directed photography for several films. She has shown her work at galleries In Georgia, Ukraine, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, and Bangladesh. Her photographs have been published in several books including, Living Together funded by the British Council in 2009, ProArt Photography funded by ProCredit Bank in 2011, and in every edition of Tbilisi Kolga Photo since 2007. In 2009, Oganova graduated from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University with a degree in business economy. In 2006, she graduated from the Yuri Mechitov Photography Art School in Tbilisi and in 2012, attended a workshop at the Ecosign / Academy of Design in Cologne. Oganova received the Special Author Prize at “Qolga 2011” and the Best Female Portrait Award for ”Black And Whine Mood” in 2010.

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Fraidoon Poya

December 10, 2012, 12:40 pm

≫ Next: Daro Sulakauri

≪ Previous: Dina Oganova

Year

2012

Location

Afghanistan

Amount

$3,500

Term

6 months

Grantee URL

http://flavors.me/poya

Fraidoon Poya will document the increasing number of women who commit suicide through self-immolation in Herat Province, Afghanistan. Poya will interview burn victims and their families in order to examine how cultural practices of marriage, tribal laws, gender norms and stereotypes, access to education, and economic status impact these women’s decisions. Poya’s goal is to allow women to tell their own stories so as to prompt much-needed dialogue and change around this issue.

Poya is currently a photographer and public information officer for the United Nation Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). After participating in two photography training workshops organized by UNAMA in 2011 and 2012, Poya now conducts photojournalism workshops for university students. Poya worked as a reporter, photographer, and camera man for the Associated Press from 2006 until 2010 and for Agence France-Presse from 2004 to 2006. His work has been exhibited in Herat and Kabul through UNAMA’s support. Poya received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Herat University in 2006.

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Daro Sulakauri

December 10, 2012, 12:51 pm

≫ Next: Fardin Waezi

≪ Previous: Fraidoon Poya

Year

2012

Location

Georgia

Amount

$3,500

Term

6 months

Grantee URL

http://www.darosulakauri.com/

Daro Sulakauri will document the impact of a recent development project on the ethnic Armenian majority and Georgian minority communities living in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region. Sulakauri’s project aims to better understand the complexities surrounding inter-ethnic relations in Georgia.

Sulakauri is a freelance photojournalist and stringer at Getty Images. Her work has been exhibited in Tbilisi, New York, Washington, D.C., Prague, and Tokyo as well as published in Mother Jones, the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph, the New York Times Lens Blog, Saveur, the Economist, and Forbes Magazine, among others. She was named one of Photo District News’ 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2011; won second place for the Magnum Foundation’s Young Photographer in the Caucasus Award in 2009; received honorable mention for the PX3 2009 Competition at the Prix de la Photographie, Paris; won the Best of 2008 SocialDocumentary.net award; won the 2008 Women In Photography International competition; and received the 2006 Toscana Photographic Workshop’s Focus on Monferrato Scholarship and the 2006 John & Marie Phillips Scholarship. Sulakauri graduated in 2006 from the International Center of Photography’s Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program and in 2008 from the Department of Cinematography at Tbilisi State University.

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Fardin Waezi

December 10, 2012, 12:56 pm

≫ Next: Jon Lowenstein

≪ Previous: Daro Sulakauri

Year

2012

Location

Afghanistan

Amount

$3,500

Term

6 months

Grantee URL

http://thruafghaneyes.blogspot.com/

Fardin Waezi will explore themes that have emerged from his extensive ten-year body of work documenting Afganistan by capturing the more subtle realities of everyday life there: the diverse experiences of Afghans from the perspective of an insider. Through individual stories, Waezi hopes his photographs will provide international viewers with a more nuanced understanding of Afghan lives and hopes for the future.

Waezi currently works for AINA, the Afghan Media and Culture Center, which promotes free press in Afghanistan and offers photography and journalism trainings. Prior to AINA, Waezi spent four years as a senior photographer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA). His work has been exhibited in Kabul at the French, Swiss, and Indian embassies, at the United Nations compound, and at the AINA Culture Center. Outside of Afghanistan, Waezi has shown his work in Tehran, Toulouse, Brussels, Berlin, Paris, New York and most recently a solo show at the British Museum in London. Waezi’s photos have been published in Le Figaro, The New York Times, and El Mundo, and he has held assignments for Der Spiegel, Le Point, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the European Commission, and the World Bank. He was selected to participate in a master photography class with Tim Page organized by the United Nations and with photographer Simon Norfolk organized by the Tate Modern.

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Jon Lowenstein

December 13, 2012, 12:21 pm

≫ Next: Robin Bowman

≪ Previous: Fardin Waezi

Year

2012

Location

Escondido, California

Amount

$30,000

Term

1 year

Grantee URL

http://noorimages.com/photographer/lowenstein/

Jon Lowenstein will partner with the Trans-Border Institute , part of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, to provide local faith leaders and religious youth groups in Escondido, California with tools to mediate escalating tensions between new migrant and native-born communities. For this project, Escondido en Escondido, experts from both partner organizations will conduct a workshop with religious leaders about issues surrounding immigration with the goal of fostering community integration and cooperation. Lowenstein will run a photography workshop with religious leaders and local youth using images from his book, Shadow Lives USA, as a way to spur dialogue around the immigrant experience and talk about the dangers of border crossings, living undocumented in the United States, and deportation, among other issues. Participants will then interview and photograph one another and Lowenstein will publish the resulting work in newspaper format, which will be distributed by those involved to the rest of their larger communities. In conjunction with the newspaper, Lowenstein will utilize the augmented reality browser Junaio to allow readers to use their smart phones to access additional images and information about the project. Lowenstein and his partners will share their project’s outcomes with local political leaders as an example of how to address immigration stereotypes by mediating and creating connections between various groups within the Escondido community.

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Robin Bowman

December 13, 2012, 12:23 pm

≫ Next: Joseph Rodriguez

≪ Previous: Jon Lowenstein

Year

2012

Location

Richmond, California

Amount

$24,500

Term

1 year

Grantee URL

http://robinbowman.theamericanteenager.com/

Robin Bowman will partner with The American Teenager Project to create an exhibition, curriculum, and training program to stimulate youth engagement on civil and human rights issues. Working with local arts organizations, high schools, and advocacy groups in Richmond, California, Bowman will use her five-year body of work, IT’S COMPLICATED: The American Teenager, as a foundation for teaching youth and their adult allies in Richmond how to “see” and “listen” to the youth in their community. She will offer storytelling workshops, train youth and teachers as ambassadors for the program in their schools, and connect youth to peers who are advocating and organizing around the issues affecting their communities.

The program will begin with a workshop for staff and youth at RYSE Youth Center to run a storytelling workshop and summer program. The portraits and interviews created during the summer program aims to capture a significant cross-section of stories by Richmond youth and begin the process of community building among them. Bowman and her partners will then work with local youth justice groups—such as Community Leaders Organizing Undocumented Dreamers (C.L.O.U.D.) and Gay Straight Alliances—to curate a two-month exhibition at the Richmond Arts Center. This exhibition will feature Bowman’s work alongside the work of Richmond youth and will be used as a platform for area youth to discuss and document issues affecting their community. To promote the adoption of The American Teenager Project curriculum in subsequent years, intensive training will be provided to educators and counselors to serve as ambassadors for the program. The goal is to foster alliances between youth, their peers, and adult allies who are advocating and organizing around issues affecting their communities.

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Joseph Rodriguez

December 13, 2012, 12:24 pm

≫ Next: Images and Advocacy: Announcing Our 2012 Audience Engagement Grant Winners

≪ Previous: Robin Bowman

Year

2012

Location

California

Amount

$26,000

Term

1 year

Grantee URL

http://www.josephrodriguezphotography.com/

Joseph Rodriguez will partner with New American Media (NAM) to train journalism students at Santa Clara University and the University of California, Berkeley, as well as youth reporters from San Jose and Richmond, California, to sensitively and accurately document the stories of people re-entering society after incarceration, with a special focus on their children. Using photographs from his body of work, “Re-entry in Los Angeles,” Rodriguez will lead two workshops at each university, and help participants produce multi-media stories to be shown at forums at both universities and at the California Research Bureau (CRB) in Sacramento. These forums will convene emerging journalists, people re-entering society after incarceration, ethnic and community media, as well as criminal justice experts. NAM will also collaborate with its community partners, Silicon Valley DeBug, Richmond Pulse, and CRB to create and distribute a video documenting the entire project to policy makers who participate in NAM’s California Council on Youth Relations forum in order to strengthen advocacy for programs and policies that advance criminal justice reforms in California.

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Images and Advocacy: Announcing Our 2012 Audience Engagement Grant Winners

December 13, 2012, 12:25 pm

≫ Next: Burma in Transition

≪ Previous: Joseph Rodriguez

Open Society Documentary Photography Project announces the winners of the 2012 Audience Engagement Grant competition: Robin Bowman, Jon Lowenstein, Joseph Rodriguez, and Emily Schiffer.

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Burma in Transition

February 28, 2013, 2:32 pm

≫ Next: Women, Violence, and Burma: Reporting from the Frontlines in Kachin State

≪ Previous: Images and Advocacy: Announcing Our 2012 Audience Engagement Grant Winners

Despite positive developments in Burma, the country remains mired in conflict. These photographs present a snapshot of life in Burma today, highlighting the causes for hope and progress and the immense challenges that remain.

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Women, Violence, and Burma: Reporting from the Frontlines in Kachin State

April 9, 2013, 7:07 am

≫ Next: Chachipe Map Skopje Exhibition

≪ Previous: Burma in Transition

People in Kachin State in Burma continue to endure devastating violence and human rights abuses. With limited humanitarian assistance available, local groups like the Kachin Women’s Association of Thailand are responding.

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Chachipe Map Skopje Exhibition

April 4, 2013, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Photography, Expanded: Rethinking Engagement and Impact

≪ Previous: Women, Violence, and Burma: Reporting from the Frontlines in Kachin State

This exhibition features a selection of photographs from the Chachipe Map photography contest organized by the Open Society Foundations and OSA Archivum.

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Photography, Expanded: Rethinking Engagement and Impact

April 19, 2013, 7:39 am

≫ Next: A Photographic Look at Access to Justice in Pakistan

≪ Previous: Chachipe Map Skopje Exhibition

Documentary photographer Marcus Bleasdale discusses his project, Zero Hour: Congo, which uses gaming to increase awareness of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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A Photographic Look at Access to Justice in Pakistan

March 18, 2013, 9:15 am

≫ Next: Daro Sulakauri

≪ Previous: Photography, Expanded: Rethinking Engagement and Impact

Open Society Fellow Asim Rafiqui shares insights gleaned from his photographic exploration of police reform and access to justice in Pakistan.

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Daro Sulakauri

December 10, 2012, 12:51 pm

≫ Next: Fifteen Years of Human Rights Photography, Now Available Online

≪ Previous: A Photographic Look at Access to Justice in Pakistan

Year

2012

Location

Georgia

Amount

$3,500

Term

6 months

Grantee URL

http://www.darosulakauri.com/

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Fifteen Years of Human Rights Photography, Now Available Online

May 7, 2013, 10:10 pm

≫ Next: Rethinking Visual Media in the Digital Age: An Interview with Fred Ritchin

≪ Previous: Daro Sulakauri

The Open Society Foundations are making available to the public an expansive documentary photography collection chronicling some of the most pressing human rights and social issues of our times.

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Rethinking Visual Media in the Digital Age: An Interview with Fred Ritchin

May 31, 2013, 7:15 am

≫ Next: Meet the Photographers in Moving Walls 21

≪ Previous: Fifteen Years of Human Rights Photography, Now Available Online

Fred Ritchin discusses his new book, Bending the Frame, about transformation in photojournalism and documentary photography, and how to use visual data in the digital age.

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Meet the Photographers in Moving Walls 21

June 27, 2013, 8:59 am

≫ Next: Mariam Amurvelashvili

≪ Previous: Rethinking Visual Media in the Digital Age: An Interview with Fred Ritchin

A Greek factory hollowed by financial ruin. Tattered shoes from a refugee’s 20-day journey on foot. A rusted plane used in the Argentine “dirty war.” These are some of the photo stories in Moving Walls 21.

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Mariam Amurvelashvili

August 13, 2013, 10:58 am

≫ Next: Anush Babajanyan

≪ Previous: Meet the Photographers in Moving Walls 21

Year

2013

Location

Georgia

Amount

$3,500

Grantee URL

http://www.amurvelashvili.ge/

Mariam Amurvelashvili will document the impact of Chinese and Indian labor migration on Georgian society. Amurvelashvili’s project aims to reveal the underlying issues as to why these two groups leave their home countries for Georgia. Her goal is to provide a more comprehensive portrait of daily life for these migrant communities in order to address, and hopefully dispel, the xenophobia surrounding their presence in Georgia.

Amurvelashvili is a freelance photographer and member of the online platform and collective, Georgianphotographers.com. Originally trained in philology, mastering the German language and literature, Amurvelashvili began working as a staff photographer for the daily Georgian newspaper 24 Hours in 2002 and for UNICEF’s Georgia office in 2004. Her work has been exhibited in Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Switzerland. Her photographs have also been selected for the 2010 Angkor Photo Festival, the Tbilisi Photo Festival, the 2011 Chobi Mela Festival, the 2012 Aleppo International Photo Festival, and les Rencontres d’Arles. In 2010, Amurvelashvili was selected to participate in a young photographers’ artist-in-residence program and master class in Niort, France, and in 2011 was shortlisted for the Lucie Foundation Scholarship. In 2008, Amurvelashvili won first prize in KARAT Coalition’s photo competition and exhibition, “Through Their Eyes, Through Ours.”

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