Getty Images awarded three photojournalism and two student grants for the 2009 Grants for Editorial Photography Program. Currently in its fifth year, the program has awarded over $500,000 in project grants to 24 recipients.
Winners announced this week in Perpignan, France, include U.S. photographers Krisanne Johnson and Brenda Kenneally and an Agrhanistan/Switzerland-based Zalmai. Their projects document women's struggle with HIV in Swaziland, issues of class and poverty in Troy, NY, and the cost of the war of terror in Afghanistan, respectively. Each winner receives $20,000 and editorial support from Getty Images.
Ed Ou of the University of Southern California and Carl Kiilsgaard of Western Kentucky University have won student grants of $5,000 each, also accompanied by editorial support. Ou is working to cover the plight of Somali refugees working in the Persian Gulf; Kiilsgaard is following "The White Family" struggling with poverty in rural Kentucky.
Winners were selected from 199 professional and 24 student proposals. Grant judges included Telegraph picture editor Cheryl Newman, Visa pour l'Image director general Jean-Francois Leroy and Stern department head Volker Lensch.