2nd Annual Grant in Social Documentary Photography Awarded

Our PhotoSouthAsia (PSA) team was on hand in mid September 2019, as the winner of the 2019 Grant in Social Documentary Photography was announced. Held again at the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication (SACAC), Delhi, this grant is awarded to a social documentary photographer under the age of 35. The purpose of the grant is to enable a young photographer to continue work on a project that is already underway. The 2nd annual grant, in the amount of 2,00,000 INR, was awarded by the jury led by esteemed photographer Ram Rahman. Other jurors were Vasant Nayak, of PSA and the MurthyNAYAK Foundation, and Colette Veasey-Cullors, Associate Dean for Design and Media at the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA), USA. Mr. Rahman announced Santanu Dey as the 2019 winner. A photographer from West Bengal, Santanu submitted a haunting project depicting Kolkata’s once-grand homes and the fading generation of once-grand families who occupied them.

The 2018 winner of this grant, Subhrajit Sen, was in attendance, as well. The first winner of this now-annual award, he showed the culmination of his project, Death Valley, on the effects of uranium mining in Jaduguda, in the Purbi (East) Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. In addition to photographs, Subhrajit premièred the video he had been working on over the course of the year, under the guidance of his mentors at SACAC. This tutelage is a condition of the award, helping the recipient to stay on track and progress satisfactorily with the project.

In his address to the assembly, Mr. Nayak noted that the prior year’s jury had found it quite difficult to select only one winner. Pleased with the quality of this year’s submissions, as well, he announced that future plans will be to exhibit the top contenders for this annual award. [PhotoSouthAsia (PSA) is a project of the MurthyNAYAK Foundation (MNF).]

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