The ceremony for the W. Eugene Smith Awards was held last Wednesday at the School of Visual Arts in New York. The 2014 first prize, the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography, was given to Joseph Sywenkyj for his long-term project showing the life of a Ukrainian family. The $30,000 grant will help him continue documenting their struggle. Although he grew up in the United States, Sywenkyj has always maintained close ties with Ukraine, his parents’ home country which he has visited many times.
Last year, he traveled to Kiev to photograph the Orange Revolution, but he spent most of his time with a family whose members are infected with AIDS. “Receiving the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography is a tremendous honor,” said Sywenkyj during his acceptance speech. “The grant will allow me to continue my long-term documentation of Ukraine at this historic time of immense transition. The fact that the award went to a project that touches upon life in this nation will hopefully help create more awareness about the situation here and its effects on individuals and families.”
Moises Saman of Magnum won second prize, a grant of $5,000 from the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, for his reports on the Arab revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. The artist Muriel Hasbun received the Howard Chapnick prize for Laberinto, her project to preserve the political works of art from the El Salvador Civil War, passed on to her by her mother, who was a gallery director.
As usual, “the most depressing night of the year,” as William M. Hunt jokingly likes to call it, ended with a drink. This year one could share a toast with photographer Eugene Richards, former Magnum editor-in-chief John G. Morris, Eugene Smith’s son Kevin, Vanity Fair creative development director David Friend.
GRANTEE
Joseph Sywenkyj, Ukraine
Verses from a Nation in Transition
FELLOWSHIP
Moises Saman, Spain
Discordia: The Arab Spring
FINALISTS
Mary Calvert, USA
The War Within: Sexual Violence in America’s Military
Matt Eich, USA
Sin & Salvation in Baptist Town
Ed Ou, Turkey
Finding True North
Encarnacion Pindado, Mexico
The Other Face of Migration: Central American Women
Majid Saeedi, Iran
Life in War: Afghanistan, a Land of Continuous Conflict
Chapnick Grant Recipient
Muriel Hasbun
