We are delighted to announce that FotoDocument is launching the Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award for women documentary photographers during International Women’s Day events in March 2017.

We will be holding an official launch event hosted by the Mayor of Brighton & Hove at 12pm on Saturday 4th March 2017, at The Old Courthouse, Brighton in association with Brighton Women’s Centre and Brighton Dome. The event will include photo talks by Marilyn Stafford herself and FotoDocument founder/photographer Nina Emett about their work photographing issues which affect women – the talks will be hosted by photo talk facilitator, Jim Stephenson from Miniclick.

All are welcome to this free event.

The Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award will be granted annually to a professional woman documentary photographer towards the initiation or completion of a compelling and cohesive photo essay which addresses an important social, economic, cultural or environmental issue. The work should, in part, showcase positive solutions to any issues it raises in order to contribute to constructive photojournalism, in line with the aims of Marilyn Stafford and FotoDocument. The award is reserved solely for documentary photographers working on projects which are intended to make the world a better place and which may be unreported or under-reported. Women from any stage of their careers are welcome to apply, whether emerging, mid-career or established, but they must have at least one photo essay completed to demonstrate track record. Entrants must be over 18, they may be any nationality and based anywhere in the world. Submissions will be judged by an international panel of industry experts including Marilyn Stafford, Nina Emett, Anna Fox, Dorothy Bohm, Donna de Cesare, Melanie Friend and Celia Davies. Marilyn Stafford’s daughter, Lina Clerke, will be an Honorary Judge for the Award.

During the photo talk Marilyn Stafford will show excerpts from some of the important stories she has covered over 30 years working as a photojournalist, including the Sicilian peasant woman who successfully brought the mafia to trial for killing her son and India’s only woman Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

 

 

Nina Emett will present her project ‘Women Workers of India’, about the legacy of ‘the gentle revolutionary’ Ela Bhatt who set up the organisation, SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association), in 1972 which has successfully lifted hundreds of thousands of women in India out of poverty through trade unionism and worker cooperatives. This work will be published by Indian art book publisher Mapin in January 2018.

 

 

We look forward to seeing you at the event.