W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund sets March 26th for virtual awards ceremony to honor 2023 grant recipients

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund announced it will host a virtual awards ceremony to honor recipients of the 2023 Eugene Smith Fund grant, fellowship, and finalist Award on Tuesday, March 26 beginning at 12:30 p.m. EST. Free and open to the public, the awards ceremony will include open discussions and presentations by last year’s grant recipients including Irina Werning (Eugene Smith Grant), Myriam Boulos (Eugene Smith Fellowship), Fabian Ritter (Eugene Smith Finalist Award), Oyewole Lawal (Eugene Smith Student Grant) and Aliona Kardash (Eugene Smith Student Honorable Mention).ST

In addition, recipients of the 2022 Eugene Smith grants and fellowships will present their award-winning projects and discuss how their grants are helping them complete their long-form documentary projects. Expected to share updates on their respective projects are Maxim Dondyuk (Eugene Smith Grant), Ta Mwe (Eugene Smith Finalist Award), and Taniya Sarkar (Eugene Smith Student Grant).

Anyone interested in attending the awards ceremony can RSVP for free at 2023SmithFundAwards. A link to the live Zoom awards ceremony will be available upon registration.

“We are excited to honor recipients of the 2023 Eugene Smith grants and fellowships during this live virtual event,” said Scott Thode, president of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. “We are equally excited to invite our 2022 grant recipients to share updates on their projects currently being funded by Smith Fund grants and look forward to seeing and hearing the progress they have made since being awarded their grants last year,” Mr. Thode added.

2023 Grant Recipients and Projects

Irina Werning (Argentina) is the recipient of the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for her project, Las Pelilargas. Since 2006, Ms. Werning has been seeking and photographing women in Argentina with long hair, a style that is influenced by a blend of South American cultures and indigenous traditions.

Myriam Boulos (Lebanon) received the $10,000 Smith Fund Fellowship for her project, “Sexual Fantasies,” which documents the sexual fantasies of women and people socialized as women in Lebanon and the region.

Fabian Ritter (Ukraine) was awarded the $5,000 Eugene Smith Finalist Award for “Youth of Ukraine,” which takes an intimate look at young Ukrainians and shares their everyday lives and emotions during a war that seems to have no end in sight.

Oyewole Lawal (Nigeria), a student at Nlele Institute in Lagos, received the $3,000 Eugene Smith Student Grant for Guardians of Gaia: The Unseen Eco-Warriors, a visual documentary project spotlighting the unsung scavenger heroes of waste recycling in the city of Lagos, Nigeria.

Aliona Kardash, a masters student at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund, received an Honorable Mention for “It Smells of Smoke at Home,” a photographer’s perspective on the war in Ukraine after leaving her native Russia in 2019 and returning to visit her parents in December 2022.

2022 Grant Recipients and Projects

Maxim Dondyuk (Ukraine) was the recipient of the $40,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography in 2022 for his project, Ukraine 2014/22. Mr. Dondyuk’s project chronicles Ukraine’s long-lasting battle for its true independence, national identity, and freedom from Russia.

Mary F. Calvert (U.S.) received the $10,000 Eugene Smith Fund Fellowship for her project, “Left Behind: Military Sexual Assault and Suicide,” which addresses the alarming rates of suicide among Military Sexual Trauma (MST) victims in the United States. Since 2001, over 30,000 U.S. service members have died by suicide, four times more than those who died in combat.

Ta Mwe (Myanmar / Burma) was awarded the Eugene Smith Finalist Award for Uprising in Myanmar, which covers the ‘Spring Revolution’ and the new generation of Burmese freedom fighters.

Taniya Sarkar (India) received the $5,000 Eugene Smith Student grant for Nothing Left to Call Home, a visual research project unearthing women’s narratives on the multi-faceted and complex communal events since India’s partition and independence in 1947.

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, Inc. is a non-profit corporation qualified as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is supported by generous contributions from the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Earth Vision Institute, PhotoWings, and the John and Anne Duffy Foundation. Additional support is provided by the International Center of Photography, and Synergy Communications