The 2020 Women Photograph Grantees

Women Photograph is thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2020 grants: the Women Photograph + Nikon grants of $5,000 have been awarded to Gabriella N. Báez, Sahar Coston-Hardy, Peyton Fulford, Roopa Gogineni, and Sandra Mehl. The Women Photograph + Getty Images Scholarship of $10,000 has been awarded to Tami Aftab. We received nearly 1,300 applications from women and non-binary photographers around the world — thank you to everyone who sent in proposals! Congratulations to the photographers selected — you can read more about their projects and connect with their work below.

Thank you to this year's grant sponsors, Nikon and Getty Images, and to our judges, Gael Almeida, Sandy Ciric, Jess Dugan, Yagazie Emezi, Sara Ickow, Emily Jan, Olivier Laurent, Zahra Rasool, Haruka Sakaguchi, and Elias Williams.

Women Photograph + Getty Images Scholarship

Tami Aftab

United Kingdom   |   www.tamiaftab.com   |   @tamiaftab

“The Dog’s in the Car” Mum shouts from upstairs. Dad’s been running around the house, in and out of the garden thinking that he has lost Rudi, our dog. This is a common occurrence, where Dad drives back from a dog walk, forgets he’s in the car, comes into the house and proceeds to think that he has lost him. My Dad, Tony, suffers from an illness called hydrocephalus, which causes him to build up too much fluid in the brain. About 25 years ago, he went in for an operation to put a hole in his head that would allow the liquid to drain easier. However, during that operation his short-term memory was accidentally damaged, permanently leaving him with a unique difficulty with short-term memory. I began working on this story in 2018, as an interview project through videoing conversations between Dad and our family, capturing how his short-term memory affects his daily life. These became the foundation and primary research of this project, as it led me to realise the importance in the humour projected from my Dad, his charm and strong spirit despite illness. Therefore, I decided to restart this project as a photographic collaboration, with lightness at its core. We use a playful tone through visualising memories and notions of familial care. The project discusses a father-daughter relationship, intimacy, and how one family deals with illness.

Finalists

Congratulations to Greta Rico, Silvana Trevale, and Yujie Zhou, who were named as finalists for the grant.

“Sahar's project documenting the geography of segregation in the United States and historical landmarks from The Green Book could not be a more urgent one for our time. She has an unflinching eye and insightful sense of story, and I cannot wait to learn more about the journey of these safe spaces and the people who inhabited them through her project and through the Northcutt-Ellis family. Her plans for this project will be a significant addition and vital resource to the visual world and to our collective history.”
— Emily Jan

“At a time when the United States is starting to address how it remembers and addresses its racial history, Roopa Gogineni’s project, Let the Record Show, takes on the complex task of reframing that history by revealing the hidden monuments — the auction houses, abandoned cemeteries, lighthouses, etc. — of the country’s antebellum period. Too often, these sites’ original purposes are only known by the descendants of enslaved people. Gogineni proposes to record and archive that history, creating an index that will be updated with public submissions from around the country. That interactivity, coupled with Gogineni’s stunning photography and her timeliness in today’s national debate, set her project apart from others, impressing the jury.”
— Olivier Laurent

“Sandra Mehl communicates a deeply thoughtful and compassionate approach to her project Ilona and Maddelena. Her five year dedication spotlights an overlooked reality in developed nations where underprivileged communities and individuals are left out of necessary representation, dispelling their truths which should be a focus in society. Sandra's images are soft and powerful, her editing is clearly carefully and tenderly done. She connects us to the sisters with her commitment to the passing of time and all that comes with it. Ilona and Maddelena is patient work. With this grant, I am confident that her continuation of it will be like a good and necessary read, with pages that you'd want to keep turning.”
— Yagazie Emezi

“Peyton Fulford’s project Infinite Tenderness offers us a glimpse into the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the American South, a region often overlooked in larger discourse around LGBTQ+ communities and politics. I was struck by the tenderness, intimacy, and formal beauty of Peyton’s photographs – her color palette is warm and the light is soft. Importantly, she is part of the community she is photographing, and her subjects have clearly welcomed her fully into their lives. I look forward to following along as Peyton makes new work and expands this important series.”
— Jess Dugan

“In the aftermath of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, this project is a quest to heal her father's death. Gabriella asks herself and portrays in this project how natural disasters can have a direct impact on a personal rupture that in turn highlights how poor mental health infrastructures can amplify collective trauma. Her work results in intervened photos that are dreamlike strong images, full of personal and symbolic elements.”
— Gael Almeida

“Tami Aftab’s The Dog’s in the Car depicts her father’s unique condition with a wistful sense of humor and intimacy that can only be conveyed through the eyes of his daughter. We appreciated her use of visual cues like letter ornaments and contact sheet layouts to depict the atypical yet deeply familiar nature of their father-daughter relationship. Rather than telling this story from a place of loss and mourning, she made a deliberate choice to portray her father through a gaze of familial love and abundance. We hope to see Tami continue to cultivate this unique perspective as she pursues her education.”
— Haruka Sakaguchi