Winner of $20,000 Alexia Professional Grant announced

The 29th year the Alexia Foundation has awarded the Alexia Professional Grant, in the 2019 the winner of the $20,000 prize has been named as Katie Orlinsky of New York, New York for Chasing Winter. The grant will be used by Orlinsky to complete the proposed project which will explore how climate change is challenging communities across Alaska and transforming the relationship between people, animals, and the land.

© Katie Orlinsky, from the project,
© Katie Orlinsky, from the project, "Chasing Winter'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Winner.

A contributing photographer for National Geographic, Orlinsky is also a regular contributor to The New York Times, The New Yorker, Smithsonian Magazine, and a number of other publications. She also received the Alexia Student Grant in 2012 for her project, Innocence Assassinated: Living in Mexico’s Drug War.

© Katie Orlinsky, from the project,
© Katie Orlinsky, from the project, "Chasing Winter'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Winner.

Moderator of the judges, Mike Davis, The Alexia Tsairis Chair for Documentary Photography at Syracuse University commented: “This year’s submissions were stronger than ever,” he stated. “Judges noted that the distinction between the quality of the student and professional submissions continues to diminish and that the range of work presented is notably more dynamic.”

The winner of the The Alexia Student Grant was named as Isabella Bernal, for her project, As American As Apple Pie, about the dream of a group of people traveling from Latin America to the United States to work in the New Jersey orchards that supply the apples and other produce to be sold in the fresh markets of New York City. Her prize includes a $1,000 cash grant to work on the proposed project and funding for a semester at Syracuse University.

© Alessandro Cinque, from the project, 'Perú, A Toxic State'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.
© Alessandro Cinque, from the project, 'Perú, A Toxic State'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.

2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalists

Katie Orlinsky – Chasing Winter

Alessandro Cinque – Perú, A Toxic State,

Brian Frank – Out of Bounds – Chapter 2

Chris Donovan – The Cloud Factory

© Alessandro Cinque, from the project, 'Perú, A Toxic State'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.
© Alessandro Cinque, from the project, 'Perú, A Toxic State'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.

2019 Alexia Student Grant Finalists

Isabella Bernal – As American As Apple Pie

Oscar Scott Carl – A Boy’s Home in Nuuk

Tabitha Barnard – Cult of Womanhood.

Competition judges

  • Aidan Sullivan (Verbatim)
  • Mia Tramz (TIME, Inc)
  • Ismail Ferdous (former Alexia recipient)
  • Peggy Peattie (former Alexia recipient)
  • Justin Maxon (former Alexia recipient)
  • Sarah Blesener (former Alexia recipient)

Judging was moderated by Mike Davis, The Alexia Tsairis Chair for Documentary Photography at Syracuse University.

© Brian Frank, from the project, 'Out of Bounds – Chapter 2'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.
© Brian Frank, from the project, 'Out of Bounds – Chapter 2'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.

About the foundation

The Alexia Foundation was created to celebrate and remember Alexia Tsairis, who was killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. It has awarded over $1.7 million to 166 photographers to help give voice to those who go unheard, foster understanding, and expose social injustice.

© Brian Frank, from the project, 'Out of Bounds – Chapter 2'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.
© Brian Frank, from the project, 'Out of Bounds – Chapter 2'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.
© Chris Donovan, from the project, 'The Cloud Factory'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.
© Chris Donovan, from the project, 'The Cloud Factory'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.
© Chris Donovan, from the project, 'The Cloud Factory'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.
© Chris Donovan, from the project, 'The Cloud Factory'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Finalist.
© Katie Orlinsky, from the project,
© Katie Orlinsky, from the project, "Chasing Winter'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Winner.
© Katie Orlinsky, from the project,
© Katie Orlinsky, from the project, "Chasing Winter'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Winner.
© Katie Orlinsky, from the project, 'Chasing Winter'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Winner.
© Katie Orlinsky, from the project, 'Chasing Winter'. 2019 Alexia Professional Grant Winner.

 

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