Winners of Documentary Photography Project Distribution Grants Announced

The Documentary Photography Project of the Open Society Institute is pleased to announce the recipients of the spring 2005 Distribution Grant competition to encourage new ways of presenting documentary photography to the public. This grant enables photographers who have already completed a significant project on issues of social justice to present the work to the public in innovative and appropriate ways, ensuring that the work gains critical exposure and also has the greatest chance to stimulate constructive social change. All projects must have another institution that agrees to financially and programatically support its distribution (an NGO, a publisher, a website, a gallery, etc.), and will collaborate with the photographer to use the work for constructive social change.

The following photographers were selected:

• Jon Anderson, in partnership with the Batey Relief Alliance, will create and distribute a multimedia exhibition of his photographs of Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic as an educational resource for the public.
• In partnership with several U.S. nonprofits, Nina Berman and Robert Acosta (one of the soldiers in Berman's portraits of Americans wounded in Iraq) will give multimedia presentations to high school and college audiences in areas where there is active military recruitment. The forums will coincide with a traveling exhibition of Berman's work.
• Marcus Bleasdale, in partnership with Human Rights Watch, will produce an exhibition with accompanying text panels to highlight the human cost of resource exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Eric Gottesman, with the Hope for Children Organization, will exhibit photographs made in collaboration with people affected by AIDS in Ethiopia. The exhibit will travel to the regional capitals of Ethiopia and be presented as part of village meetings.
• Vera Lentz, in conjunction with W. W. Norton & Company, will publish a bilingual book that records the violence in Peru from 1980 to 2003. The book will be distributed to universities, the media, human rights groups, and NGOs in Peru.
• Viva Favela is a collaborative of seven photojournalists who document everyday life in favela communities in Brazil. In partnership with Viva Rio, the photographers will produce an exhibit that will travel to favelas throughout Rio de Janeiro and create an online gallery.

For more information on the photographers, please see the Distribution Grantee list.