Stefano De Luigi, Miquel Dewever-Plana, Edwin Koo, Darcy Padilla and Jerome Sessini have each won $20,000, as well as collaborative editorial support from Getty Images, to pursue or finish a documentary photography project. Similarly, student photographers Bryan Anselm, Julie Glassberg, Julia Marie Rendleman and Paris Visone have each receive $5000 to develop their work.

Asked about the importance of the funds received, Dewever-Plana tells BJP that while he’s not here to put the press on trial, “the more we deepen a subject, the more picture editors are taken aback. They don’t always know how to present our work.” As a consequence, he adds, “we sell fewer and fewer subjects and we receive less and less support. So, we need to find other funding sources.”

Rendleman, who was awarded $5000 for her project Impact Incarceration at Dixon Springs, agrees, but adds that beyond the money, the recognition such a grant brings with it is even more important.

This year’s winners were selected from 260 applications from professional photojournalists and only 48 proposals from student photographers. The judging panel included Stephen Frailey, of the School of Visual Arts,  Jean-François Leroy, of Visa Pour l’Image, The New York Times’ director of photography Kathy Ryan, Newsweek’s senior photo editor Jamie Wellford and documentary photographer Eugene Richards.

“I am delighted that our editorial photography grants programme continues to empower photojournalists and enable them to bring these important visual essays to the world’s attention,” comments Aidan Sullivan, vice president of photo assignments at Getty Images.

With the funds, De Luigi plans on completing a series of reportages in Sundan, Chad and Darfur, while Koo will document the reconstruction of the Swat Valley and the human cost of the war. However, he says at a presentation of his work at Visa Pour l’Image, his project has shifted in focus since his initial submission. “My proposal was on the rebuilding of the region, unfortunately, the recent floods have added  (to the destruction) and the reconstruction has not been put on the backburner in this region. I’m here to document what happens, not dictate it,” he adds.

Padilla will use her grant to continue a 18-year-long project following one person – Julie – shedding, while doing so, light on disparate aspects of welfare, poverty, family rights, AIDS and substance abuse. Sessini will go back to the Mexico-US border to continue his work on Mexico’s plunge into violence as “the government wages war against the drug cartels,” says Getty.

Dewever-Plana, who spoke with BJP at last year’s Visa Pour l’Image photojournalism festival, will also go back to Guatemala to document the violence that results from drug trafficking. In fact, he tells BJP, three days after learning he had won the grant, the photographer bought his plane ticket back. The $20,000, he says, will fund two additional trips. The next step, he says, will be to create a book and an interactive website that will be used in Guatemalan schools to help a new generation of young people stay away from gangs. 

For more information, visit the Getty Images’ Grants website.