Announcing our 2016 Emergency Fund Grantees

My daughter, Itzel Martínez, after taking a shower at home in Taxco Guerrero. She is 6 years-old. In 2013, three of my  brothers in-laws died. After these events, I began documenting my family and tried to capture the psychological and emotional breakdown caused by the loss of a family member, Mexico. Photo by Yael Martinez.

We are pleased to announce this year’s recipients of the Emergency Fund, a program that supports independent photographers to produce in-depth and creative stories on underreported issues. This year’s grants are made in collaboration with the Prince Claus Fund, which is expanding the support for photographers working on critical issues in their home regions.

Grantees were selected by an independent editorial committee from a pool of 140 photographers nominated by 26 international editors, curators, and educators. “I anticipate this group of visual artists will produce transcendent and extraordinary photography in 2016 and well beyond. They are a remarkable group of talented, diverse, and devoted people,” said editorial committee member James Wellford.

Our 2016 grantees include 18 photographers working in 15 different countries. A hallmark of the EF is its support for socially engaged photographers working within their own communities. “The ability to increase our financial support for photographers who are reporting on issues in their own countries creates new, vital, and alternative sources of shared information. There are few opportunities that offer photographers the potential for impact and recognition in the way that the Emergency Fund does,” remarked editorial committee member Alexa Dilworth.

This year’s grantees join an accomplished group of 60 previous grantees, bringing the number of photographers supported by the EF over the past seven years to 78. The collaboration with the Prince Claus Fund has made this the largest group of EF grantees supported in a single year, enabling a significant increase in both the number of projects being produced and in the geographic representation of the photographers. A total of $138,000 will be dispersed across this year’s supported projects, the most grant funds dispersed in a single year to date.

2016 EMERGENCY FUND GRANTEES

• Poulomi Basu
  “A Ritual of Exile: Blood Speaks,” Nepal
• Endia Beal
  “Am I What You’re Looking for?,” United States
• Injinaash Bor
  “Mongolian Modern Teenagers,” Mongolia
• Alejandro Cegarra
  “Our Invisible War,” Venezuela
• Chien-Chi Chang
  “The Price of Isolation,” Burma
• Joana Choumali
  “Sisi Barra” (Smoke Work), Ivory Coast
• Jordi Ruiz Cirera
  “The United Soya Republic,” Argentina
• Thomas Dworzak
  “The Guide for Refugees,” Europe
• Danny Wilcox Frazier
  “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie,” United States
• Ziyah Gafic
  “Paradise Lost,” Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Brigitte Grignet
  “Welcome,” Belgium
• Eric Gyamfi
  “Just Like Us,” Ghana
• Yael Martinez
  “Broken Roots,” Mexico
• Nadège Mazars
  “The Other Colombia,” Colombia
• Showkat Nanda
  “The Endless Wait,” India
• Katie Orlinsky
  “Chasing Winter,” United States
• Prisiit Sthapit
  “Change of Course,” Nepal
• Angelos Tzortzinis
  “In Search of the European Dream,” Greece

On very hot days, boys go down to the river for a swim and to fish, Nepal. Photo by Prisiit Sthapit.

“Corporate America is intimidating, but my hope to succeed in corporate allows it to also be promising. I feel like I will have to fight twice as hard to exceed my competition for respect, not even wage.”
- Sabrina, 23, Arkansas.

“I join the band of minority women in corporate America as a faceless heroine. I believe corporate has lost its servitude for humanity and I feel obligated to supply it. I noticed that big-name corporations are making an effort to equal the playing field by hiring minority and female leaders…but it’s an indication that there are highly skilled players on the bench ready to be called into play.“
- Katrina, 23, Arkansas

United States. Photo by Endia Beal.

Men and boys return to town in Barrow, Alaska after hunting bearded seal in the ocean days after the ice went out early following the warmest winter on record in Alaska, United States. Photo by Katie Orlinsky.

Migrants and refugees wait to be registered by the police at the port of Lesbos, Greece. Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis.

See more images here. For specific information regarding the grant, please contact press@magnumfoundation.org.