Announcing Our 2015 EMERGENCY FUND Grantees

This map indicates where EF Grantees have worked 2010-2015

This year's 11 Emergency Fund grantees were selected from a pool of 100 photographers nominated by 15 international photo editors, curators, and educators. From both regional and international perspectives, the 2015 Emergency Fund grantees will explore emerging issues that range from income inequality across the American Southwest to the implementation of militarized anti-poaching tactics in Africa. 

Check out TIME Exclusive: Magnum Emergency Fund Announces 2015 Grantees

• Asim Rafiqui
  Law & Order: A People’s History of the Law in Pakistan, Pakistan 

This project investigates the structural roots of injustice in Pakistan and the failures of the country’s legal system that afflict some of Pakistan’s most marginalized communities. Continuing to examine questions of law and justice, Rafiqui will add a new chapter to his ongoing work in Pakistan.

The Bagram Prisoner Campaign: Subject: Deen Roza, Mother. Prisoner # 3718: Hamidullah Khan, Pakistan. 2013 © Asim Rafiqui / NOOR Images

• Curran Hatleberg
  Shadow Country, USA

Florida is built on mystery–a tropical peninsula where neither water nor land quite prevails. It is always threatened by hurricanes. The sun is notoriously oppressive. This project will paint a portrait of the state, depicting the ups and downs of local culture, as well as shared issues of national scope.

Riverfront, USA. 2012© Curran Hatleberg

• Elena Perlino
  Pipeline, Italy

Trafficking Nigerian women to Italy has become an industry; 30,000 women are trafficked each year from Nigeria to meet the demands of over 7 million Italian clients. Perlino has observed former clients forming relationships and subsequently marrying trafficked Nigerian women, helping them to escape the sex trade. This project examines these relationships.

Once in Europe, most of the Nigerian trafficked women have no choice other than prostituting themselves. They meet their clients in the vegetation or in abandoned houses, Turin, Italy. 2006 © Elena Perlino

• Emine Gozde Sevim
  Unbeknown, Turkey

In light of recent developments concerning the Kurdish resistance in Kobane, this project explores the complexities of the socio-ethnic fabric in Turkey and its possible implications for the greater Middle-East region.

Fire in Talimhane during Gezi Protests, Istanbul, Turkey. 2013 © Emine Gozde Sevim

• Guy Martin
  Parallel State, Turkey

A few years after flooding the Middle East with soap operas focused on their Ottoman past, Turkish TV is now turning to the rowdy, riveting present. This project examines the power that television studios have to manipulate, course, and reflect contemporary Turkish life as the country heads towards prime ministerial elections in 2015.

A curtain illustration of Istanbul at a film lot used for filming soap operas in the city centre, 2013. Turkey © Guy Martin / Panos

• Massimo Berruti
  Epidemic, Italy

The illegal dumping of highly toxic materials in the Campania Region of Italy has contaminated farmland and aquifers, and increased occurrences of cancer in the region - especially among children. This project explores the ongoing environmental crisis in the region and its impact on individuals and the community as a whole. 

A Gipsy girl residing in a camp that sits atop an illegal landfill is walking in the surroundings while a toxic fire burns a few yards away, Giugliano, Italy. 2014 © Massimo Berruti / VU

• Matt Black
  The Geography of Poverty, USA

As income inequality continues to swell in the United States, more and more individuals and families are slipping into poverty. Leveraging the power of social media platforms to engage audiences, this project combines geo-tagged photographs with poverty data, examining contemporary poverty and income inequality across the American Southwest.

Fence post. Allensworth is an unincorporated community in Tulare County, California, United States. The population was 471 at the 2010 census. Residents have a $7,274 per capita income and 54% live below the poverty level, Allensworth, CA 35°51'53"N 119°23'21"W. #geographyofpoverty 
2014 © Matt Black

• Nii Obodai Provencal
  Big Dreams: Life Built on Gold, Ghana

Gold makes up about 40 percent of external trade in Ghana, and has long been a part of its history. It was the gold trade that catalyzed the construction of imposing forts and castles along Ghana’s coast in the 1500s and 1600s, and it’s the gold trade that still wields power today. This project explores, with historical depth, the role gold mining plays in Ghana and the lives of its miners.

A girl stands on the edge of a gold-mining pit in Obuasi, Ghana © Nii Obodai Provencal

• Pete Muller
  Wildlife Wars: The Growing Movement of Militarized Anti-Poaching, Africa 

In an effort to combat aggressive poaching in Africa, anti-poaching efforts have begun to adopt a more militarized approach including combat training for park rangers, intelligence gathering, surveillance operations, asset recruitment and other tactics that have historically fallen into the military’s domain. This project examines these new and developing practices.

A large group of unhabituated forest elephants gather in a jungle clearing of the Dzanga-Sangha Reserve in the Central Africa Republic. In May 2013, poachers slaughtered nearly 30 elephants in this clearing © Pete Muller / Prime for Smithsonian Magazine

• Peter DiCampo
  What Went Wrong: Perspectives on Failed Aid, Malawi

Sub-Saharan Africa is littered with “dead aid” objects - the remnants of failed projects signifying that foreign aid is not working. This project examines these objects while gathering testimony from local people. An initial chapter based in Ghana has been completed, and this next chapter will take place in Malawi.

Unused concrete slabs, meant to be the base of latrines, Wantugu, Northern Region, Ghana. © Peter DiCampo

• Peter van Agtmael
  Untitled, Israel/Palestine

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often visually represented in a two-dimensional or polemical manner. This project continues van Agtmael’s long-term work documenting the region’s day-to-day activity with complexity and nuance.

Schoolchildren head to class at the Sobhi Abu Karsh School in the Shujai'iya neighborhood. Operation Protective Edge lasted from 8 July 2014 – 26 August 2014, killing 2,189 Palestinians of which 1,486 are believed to be civilians. 66 Israeli soldiers and 6 civilians were killed. It’s estimated that 4,564 rockets were fired at Israel by Palestinian militants, Gaza, Palestine. 2014 © Peter van Agtmael / Magnum Photos