2012 Inge Morath Award Winner

Isadora Kosofsky (US) is the recipient of the 2012 IM Award for her proposal Selections from "The Three" and "This Existence." The finalists for the IM Award were Maria Pleshkova (RU), for her project Days of War: A Pillowbook, and Carlotta Zarattini (IT), for her project The White Building.

Each June, the winner of the Inge Morath Award is selected by the full membership of Magnum Photos, and the Director of the Inge Morath Foundation, during the annual Magnum meeting. The Award of $5,000 is given by the Magnum Foundation, in cooperation with the IM Foundation, to a female photographer under the age of 30, to support the completion of a long-term documentary project.

Kosofsky is 18 years old, and began her work with the elderly after the death of her grandmother, who raised her. "Grief following my grandmother's death led me to document the lives and relationships of the elderly, particularly women, in Los Angeles over the course of four years," Kosofsky writes. She will use the Award to continue that project, and also to expand it. "I seek to further develop my documentation, and The Inge Morath Award will permit me to do so. I wish to not only expand my existing narratives but also to document the elderly in France, a different cultural setting."

Isadora Kosofsky's winning proposal will be presented in full in IM Magazine, the web-based publication of the Inge Morath Foundation, in September, 2012, followed by the proposals of the finalists, Maria Pleshkova and Carlotta Zarattini. Kosofsky's project "The Three" was featured in Le Monde in June 2012, and on TIME Lightbox in May. She was nominated in 2010 for the prize for "Single Editorial Image," and in 2009 for "Social Documentary Essay," at the 2010 New York Photo Festival. Kosofsky also founded the Photo-dialectic therapy: Photographic Documentation Project, at the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House, to engage chronically ill children and their families through photography. The program was in operation from 2008 – 10.

Learn More about Inge Morath

Photo © Isadora Kosofsky, 2012

Feature from Boniface Mwangi

›› CLICK HERE TO VIEW "POLITICS OF THE STOMACH"

The Magnum Foundation awarded Boniface Mwangi a discretionary fund to document the drought in the Horn of Africa in August 2011. Despite the widespread media coverage of Ethiopia's drought crisis, many regions such as Kenya went under-reported. The funds allowed Mwangi to examine the drought in Kenya and examine the crisis beyond the immediate environmental concerns.

Boniface Mwangi was a 2011 Human Right Fellow at NYU and Magnum Foundation's Photography and Human Rights program. Since he founded PAWA254, an organization to foster community-driven projects for social change in Nairobi Kenya.

Voices from Burma Recap

Readers (left to right) Law Eh Soe, Deborah Eisenberg, Amitav Ghosh, Wallace Shawn and Kathryn Grody listen to a closing prayer read by Burmese monks at "Voices from Burma" on October 11th 2011.

October 26th 2011 - An evening celebrating the power of both visual and oral narrative, Voices from Burma at the Asia Society was well attended and a great success. In case you were unable to attend, a recap of the evening can be found at WNYCs website and a full video recording of the event is available at The Asia Society Website. See below for three of the multimedia pieces produced for the event.

The Words of Kyaw Zwar

The Words of Kyaw Zwar produced by Takaaki Okada includes images courtesy of Lu Nan, Magnum Photos and an original soundtrack by Shoko Nagai and Satoshi Takeishi. This piece is the first in a series of creative collaborations with Voice of Witness and made possible by the generous support of the Panta Rhea Foundation.

Burma Land of Shadows

Commissioned by the Magnum Foundation, Chien-Chi Chang's video, Burma Land of Shadows offers a unique perspective on current day Burma by incorporating strong visual imagery with an evocative soundtrack. For more information on Chien-Chi's photography you can visit Magnum Photos.

We Are Free, But We Are Not

"We Are Free But We Are Not" features the work of photographer James Mackay.

Voices from Burma Event

Presented by the Asia Society, Pen American Center, Open Society Foundations,
Voice of Witness, and the Magnum Foundation

Voices From Burma will bring together prominent authors, actors and Burmese dissidents to read excerpts of first-person accounts from the book Nowhere to Be Home: Narratives from Survivors of Burma's Military Regime. The evening will be hosted by Orville Schell. Readers include writers Amitav Ghosh and Deborah Eisenberg; actors Wallace Shawn and Kathryn Grody; Burmese dissidents U Agga and Law Eh Soe, and more.

Nowhere to Be Home is the eighth book in the Voice of Witness nonprofit book series, founded by Dave Eggers and Dr. Lola Vollen. The series depicts human rights crises around the world through the stories of the people who experience them. Nowhere to Be Home represents an unparalleled achievement—a compelling, in-depth collection of diverse voices from Burma at a time when fundamental freedoms of speech and expression are denied and military attacks on civilian populations continue, increasing the number of Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs).

Voices From Burma will also feature award-winning photography taken from inside Burma by Magnum photographers Chien Chi Chang and Lu Nan along with James Mackay, whose work will be featured this fall in "Moving Walls" at the Open Society Foundations. Combining compelling visual and audio material collected over several years, their multi-media projections underscore the power of narrative storytelling, and together spotlight the complex, intersecting issues that continue to confront Burma today.

This event comes at a particularly crucial time. During the United Nations General Assembly this fall, member states are in a position to establish an international Commission of Inquiry to investigate human rights violations, make recommendations for institutional reforms, and affirm accountability as a necessary part of a transition away from exclusive military rule. It is our hope that Voices From Burma will help highlight these issues, and keep the United Nations focused on political and economic reform in Burma.

Location: Asia Society and Museum, NYC (725 Park Avenue at 70th Street)
Event Date: October 11, 2011
Event Time: 7:00 p.m.

Contact:
Anoushka Ratnarajah
anoushka.ratnarajah@gmail.com
Please RSVP via email.

Magnum Foundation Announces 2011 Award Winners

July 5th 2011 --The Magnum Foundation has named the winners of the Inge Morath Award, the Young Photographer in the Caucasus Award, and the Emerging Photographer Award.

Zhe Chin from "Bees"

Inge Morath Award The Magnum Foundation and the Inge Morath Foundation are pleased to announce Zhe Chen has won the 2011 Inge Morath Award for her project "Bees." The award is given annually to a female photographer under the age of 30.

The award is named in honor of the late Magnum photographer Inge Morath. The award jury is comprised of the full members of Magnum Photos and the Director of the Inge Morath Foundation.

Brought up in Beijing, China, Zhe Chen, 22, is a photo-based artist currently living in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of the Photography and Imaging program at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA. In the past four years, she has created a series of projects focusing on body modification, human hair, identity confusion, post-traumatic stress disorder, and memory.

Zhe Chen will receive $5000 and her winning proposal will be presented in full in IM Magazine, the web-based publication of the Inge Morath Foundation, in September, 2011.

Justyna Mielnikiewicz from "Shared Sorrows – Divided Lines"

Young Photographer in the Caucasus Award Justyna Mielnikiewicz has received the 2011 Young Photographer in the Caucasus Award. She will receive $5,000 for her documentary photography project, "Shared Sorrows – Divided Lines".

Mielnikiewicz, 38, is a freelance documentary photographer based in Georgia. Her project was chosen from among five finalists by a jury comprised of the membership of Magnum Photos.

The Magnum Young Photographer in the Caucasus Award is given to a photographer under 38 native to or resident in the Caucasus region. The award is intended to help further an ongoing documentary project in the region. The award is an outgrowth of the book project Georgian Spring.

Irina Werning from "Back to the Future"

Emerging Photographer Award The Magnum Foundation and Burn magazine are pleased to announce Irina Werning has won the 2011 Emerging Photographer Award and will receive $15,000 to continue her documentary project, "Back to the Future".

Werning is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and obtained a Master's Degree in Photographic Journalism from Westminster University, London.

The Emerging Photographer Award is designed to support continuation of a photographer's personal project. The body of work may derive from a journalistic mission or from purely personal artistic imperatives. The primary intent of the award is to support emerging photographers who will become the icons of tomorrow.

Giving Trees at 25 CPW GALLERY

The Magnum Foundation's BE SEEN project held its first fundraising exhibition, GIVING TREES, at 25 CPW Gallery Dec 3rd through Jan 9th 2011.

The GIVING TREES exhibit brought together images drawn from the Magnum Photos archive, each one celebrating the tree and its essential place in our world's landscape. In addition, the exhibit focused on the necessity of acting now to "Re-Green the World." The proceeds from the sale of these prints were shared between the Magnum Foundation and the Green World Campaign, a non-profit organization that plants trees to restore the ecology and economy of some of the world's poorest places.

Participating Magnum photographers included Jonas Bendiksen, Bruce Davidson, Martine Franck, Stuart Franklin, Jean Gaumy, Jim Goldberg, Harry Gruyaert, Gilles Peress, Danny Lyon, Peter Marlow, Steve McCurry, Trent Parke, Geuorgui Pinkhassov, Mark Power, Alec Soth, Larry Towell and John Vink.

Through an open call submission process, the following photographers also participated, Jane Fulton Alt, Scott Brauer, Neil Craver, Benjamin Dimmitt, Lewis Francis, Lucy Helton, Keryn Huang, Eirik Johnson, Daniel Kukla, Minny Lee and Ruben E. Reyes.


Bruce Davidson speaking at 25 CPW Gallery on January 6, 2011. Photo by Geordie Wood

Magnum Foundation at NY Armory

The Magnum Foundation made its first public appearance at the tenth edition of The Armory Show in New York City, March 27-30, 2008. As one of only six selected non-profits to participate this year, the booth generated a tremendous amount of positive interest from the general art-going public, the media, and photography aficionados familiar with Magnum's past. Special thanks to Leslie Simitch and Damon Brandt who donated their curatorial expertise for this exciting event.

Magnum Foundation Launches

In 1947, four individuals formed a cooperative called Magnum Photos to ensure that photographers could choose subjects that mattered to them and freely document what they saw – to "evoke…a truth," as founding member Henri Cartier-Bresson once said.

Sixty years later, in late 2007, the members of Magnum Photos formed the Magnum Foundation for much the same reason: to ensure that photographs continue to illuminate the world in which we live. Learn more in our brochure below...