Getty Images just handed out its inaugural Getty Images Instagram Grants, awarding three photographers $10,000 each for their incredible work documenting stories from underrepresented communities around the world using Instagram.
The recipients are:
1) Ismail Ferdous - @afterranaplaza
Photo of Ismail Ferdous by Tashfia Afrin
A Bangladeshi documentary photographer using Instagram to cover social humanitarian issues, Ferdous receives a grant for his project titled After Rana Plaza, which centers around the surviving relatives of those killed in the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory.
2) Adriana Zehbrauskas - @adrianazehbrauskas
Photo of Adriana Zehbrauskas by Dario Lopez-Mills
A Brazilian‐born photographer currently residing in Mexico City, Zehbrauskas has been awarded for her Instagram portfolio of work which covers topics such as climate change and the documentation of the everyday lives of Latin Americans. Adriana intends to use the grant to fund her project "Next of Kin: Family Matters," shooting portraits of the families of 43 missing students who went missing from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers School last year. Adriana is also a contributor to the Instagram collective @everydayclimatechange.
3) Dmitry Markov - @dcim.ru
Photo of Dmitry Markov by Dmitry Markov
Markov resides in Pskov, Russia, and volunteers for multiple children's charities. By sharing his work on Instagram, Dmitry hopes to spotlight the plight of orphaned children and encourage society to "look at the problems of such children in a humane way."
The three winners were chosen from more than 1,200 entries from 109 countries. The judges included David Guttenfelder, National Geographic photography fellow; Kira Pollack, director of photography and visual enterprise for Time; documentary photographers Maggie Steber, Malin Fezehai and Ramin Talaie, who is co-founder of @EverydayIran.
"Every day people come to Instagram to be transported, to be inspired, and to learn something new about the world around them," said Amanda Kelso, director of community at Instagram. "Ismail, Adriana and Dmitry are master visual storytellers whose work on Instagram shines a powerful spotlight on causes in need of champions."
"Getty Images believes in the power of imagery as a catalyst for social change," said Elodie Mailliet Storm, Getty Images' senior director of content partnerships. "Our three recipients could not better exemplify the original aim of this grant: to document and share stories of underrepresented communities that otherwise rarely come into focus. We are honored to award these grants and hope they will encourage talent to continue to tell important stories through new platforms."
Each recipient receives a grant of $10,000 and mentorship from one of Getty Images' photojournalists, including John Moore, Chris McGrath and Andrew Burton. The recipients' work will also be exhibited at the Photoville event in New York City, which opens today and runs through to Sept. 20.
The judges have also chosen to recognize the work of five other photographers: Tasneem Asultan (@tasneemalsultan) of Dubai, UAE; Kevin Cook (@kevincookphoto) of Philadelphia; Igor Pisuk (@igorpisuk) of Stockholm, Sweden; Cassandra Giraldo (@afterschoolproject) of New York; and Ako Salemi (@f64s125) of Tehran, Iran. They will receive a personal mentorship from a member of the Getty Instagram Grant judging panel.