Russian photojournalist Yuri Koryzev and his Dutch counterpart Kadir Van Lohuizen won the Carmignac 2018 prize. The prize was awarded yesterday at the Carmignac Foundation in Paris. Based on a double polar expedition in the Arctic, they’ll explore a set of issues related to this region. They won a 100,000 euros grant.
For six months, the two photojournalists will survey two roads all around the Arctic, one to the east, the other to the west. Yuri Kozyrev will start from Murmansk to end in Chukotka National Park (Russia). His route follows the roads of Russian seaports, with some incursions into the land. Kadir Van Lohuizen will leave the Norwegian island Spitsbergen, move to Greenland before gaining US territory and the tip of Alaska at Point Hope.
After organizing scouting this winter, the two photographers will divide their trips between two expeditions in spring and summer. Rather than focusing on a single theme, their work will be confronted with several conflict-related problems in this region: opening of navigable roads to trade, research of new mineral resources, melting of ice, thaw and permafrost, petroleum industry and gas and relations between nations indigenous peoples.
The Carmignac Award was chaired by the scientist Jean Jouzel, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 and by Ségolène Royal, the French ambassador for the Poles . A partnership with Désir d’Avenir for the Planet, an NGO created by Ségolène Royal, as well as with Green Cross, Time for the Ocean and Le Monde doubled the endowment fund for the Award, usually set at 50,000 euros. The two photojournalists are part of the NOOR agency.
