Congratulations to photojournalist Lynsey Addario, based in Istanbul, Turkey, who has received a coveted $500,000 "no strings attached" MacArthur fellowship for "creating a powerful visual record of the most pressing conflicts and humanitarian crises of the 21st century."According to Photo District News, "Addario is the only photographer among the 24 grant winners announced Tuesday. Fewer than ten photographers have been awarded MacArthur Fellowships since the program started in 1981."
Addario's work for the Council on Foreign Relations' Darfur Crisis Guide, produced by MediaStorm, is featured in the sixth edition of our "Photojournalism: The Professionals' Approach" textbook.
The MacArthur program notes:Lynsey Addario is a photojournalist whose powerful images are visual testimony to the most pressing conflicts and humanitarian crises of the 21st century. In a time when many readers are becoming numb to the constant flow of images of war, death, and suffering, Addario combines a rigorous journalistic approach with a keen artistic eye to render events in Afghanistan, Darfur, Iraq, and elsewhere in startling and unexpected ways.Addario has been based in Istanbul since 2003 and covers the Middle East for the New York Times. She won a 2008 Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography and contributed to the New York Times staff portfolio that won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. While on assignment in Pakistan, she survived a car crash earlier this year.
Her vibrant color photographs of refugee camps in Darfur reveal both the cruelties that have been perpetrated as well as the dignity and humanity of the victims. Relentless in her pursuit of images that evoke an overall narrative, she has gained access to regions and peoples often closed to outsiders.
Free of a singular didactic perspective, her photographic essays from Afghanistan and Iraq depict the underlying realities of war: the pain, confusion, and exhilaration of being a soldier; the daily struggles for civilians, especially children, living in a war zone; and the lives of Taliban leaders.
A regular theme in Addario’s work is capturing the lives of women in male-dominated societies. Her most recent project involves photographing survivors of gender-based violence in the Congo and is part of a traveling exhibition intended to increase awareness of the ongoing human rights abuses taking place there. Addario’s dedication to demystifying foreign cultures and exposing the tragic consequences of human conflict is drawing much-needed attention to conflict zones around the world and providing a valuable historical record for future generations.
Her work has been exhibited at numerous national and international venues... and has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, and Harpers, among many other publications.
The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to "talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work."
LINKS:
* Lynsey Addario's Website
* Darfur Crisis Guide
* MacArthur Foundation Website
* National Press Photographers Association story
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1 comment:
I was very happy to hear that she had won this award. She is a great inspiration to other emerging female photojournalists, and her work is exceptional and very powerful. She and her work is an excellent example of what a true photojournalist is about. She is a great role model for females in the field, to strive to achieve her level of success.
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