The W. Eugene Smith Fund has announced the recipients of this year’s grant in documentary photography. It has also announced the recipient of the 6th annual Eugene Smith Student grant. In addition, the Smith Fund also presented a Fellowship grant and Finalist award.
Irina Werning, a documentary photographer in Argentina, has receive the top grant of $30.000 for her project, Las Pelilargas, a project she has been working on since 2006, which has her seeking and photographing women in Argentina with long hair, a style that is influenced by a blend of South American cultures and indigenous traditions.
Myriam Boulos (Lebanon) is this year’s recipient of the $10,000 Smith Fund Fellowship for her project, Sexual Fantasies, which documents the sexual fantasies of women and people socialized as women in Lebanon and the region.
The judges also presented a Finalist grant of $5,000 to Fabian Ritter (Ukraine) for Youth of Ukraine, which takes an intimate look at young Ukrainians and shares their everyday lives and emotions during a war that seems to have no end in sight.
This year’s Student grant went to Oyewole Lawal (Nigeria) for Guardians of Gaia: The Unseen Eco-Warriors, a visual documentary project spotlighting the unsung scavenger heroes of waste recycling in the city of Lagos, Nigeria.
The judges also presented an Honorable Mention award to Aliona Kardash for “It Smells of Smoke at Home,” a photographer’s perspective on the war in Ukraine after leaving her native Russia in 2019 and returning to visit her parents in December 2022.
Since its inception in 1979, the Fund has presented more than $1.3 million dollars to documentary photographers around the world.
