OSI Documentary Photography Project Announces 2008 Distribution Grant Winners

The Open Society Institute Documentary Photography Project has announced the recipients of its 2008 Distribution Grant competition.

The goal of the Distribution Grant program is to support documentary photographers who have completed a significant body of work on issues of social justice to devise—in collaboration with a partner organization—new and innovative ways of using photography as a tool for positive social change. Projects must be designed in a way that will resonate with the target audience, encourage community engagement, and have a meaningful and lasting impact on the communities or issues addressed in the images.

2008 Distribution Grantees

Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh, to partner with the Arab Image Foundation, to curate photographs taken by Palestinian youth living in Burj El Shamali refugee camp and create a permanent archive of the work, as well as an outdoor exhibit that will tour five Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. $23,000.

Lori Grinker, to partner with the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, and present—to 10 high schools in the U.S.—an exhibit, multimedia piece, and study and action guide that address the experiences of Iraqis forced into exil. $21,000.

Lisa Tuttle, to partner with The Dirty Truth Campaign, to curate photographs taken by residents of six neighborhoods in Atlanta, Georgia, and create street corner installations within these neighborhoods in order to organize local residents around issues of displacement, gentrification, and disinvestment in their communities. $23,000.

Arthur Robinson Williams, to partner with the American Medical Student Association, to utilize photographs from the "My Right Self" project to educate health care students and professionals about transsexual and gender-variant individuals. $25,000.

Lori Waselchuk, to partner with the Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice & Palliative Care Organization, to curate "Grace Before Dying," a photography exhibition on Angola Prison's hospice program, and tour the exhibit to correctional facilities in Mississippi and Louisiana to encourage the integration of hospice programs as part of prison healthcare. $15,000.

For more information on the photographers, please see the 2008 Distribution Grantee list.