Awards

FiftyCrows Highlights Documentary Work

	© Jack Picone A patient enjoys comfort from one of the temple dogs at Wat Prabatnamphu. Patients like this woman do not receive visitors from friends or family because of the stigma attached to being HIV positive.

When FiftyCrows founder and executive director Andy Patrick was looking at how to invigorate the organization’s International Fund For Documentary Photography, he decided he needed to go beyond traditional grant funding to offer photographers multiple avenues of exposure.

That’s why Patrick is excited about this year’s winners. In addition to the web site portfolios, which are quite nice themselves, and the annual Photo Fund exhibition, which kicks off August 22, winning photographers will also get five-minute video segments to showcase their work on TV and web-based platforms. San Francisco-based news network WorldLink TV has agreed to air several of the spots, and competition judge MJ Akbar, who hosts a political TV show in India, will showcase the work on his program.

Patrick believes the exposure and the funds — each winner receives $7,000 — will go towards developing the next wave of great photographers. This year, six winners and ten finalists were chosen from 288 entries. The winners are: Jihan Ammar, Egypt; Jack Picone, Australia; Sophia Evans, U.K.; Marcos Adandia; Argentina; Ahikam Seri, Israel and Diana Matar, U.S. Judges included Akbar, PixelPress founder Fred Ritchin and art director Rhonda Rubenstein.

© Sophia Evans In Nigeria, funerals of those who die young are sober affairs while the deaths of old people are celebrated.

Winning portfolios address social and political topics including the role of women in the Middle East, life under colonial capitalism in Nigeria, AIDS in South East Asia and persecution of the Bedouins by the Israeli government. Though most of the essays could be called progressive or even left-leaning, Patrick says he doesn’t want the documentary fund to be labeled as such, preferring instead to raise awareness and enact change on a complexity of issues.

"I don’t want us to be perceived as this leftist, progressive, liberal organization people can immediately identify," Patrick says. "I don’t care if you’re a republican or a democrat, if you see [featured photographer] Paul Fusco’s work on Chernobyl you can’t help but be moved."

The "2003 Photo Fund Winners" will be exhibited at the FiftyCrows Gallery in San Francisco beginning August 22. On September 12, the gallery will host an awards ceremony for the winners and finalists, which will also be a fund-raiser for the foundation. Finally, on September 22, the show will travel to the Northern California Grantmakers (NCG) conference, which will give the photographers exposure to the people who can fund future projects.

Web portfolios are now online, and the TV segments will go live in the next month.