Announcing the recipients of the PWNY 2014 European Tour – Emerging Photographer Scholarship
We arrived in Italy 5 days ago to begin preparing for our European tour which begins in October and will take us to Naples, Paris, Catania, Berlin & Warsaw with acclaimed photographers Stefano De Luigi, Jessica Backhaus, Michael Ackerman, Adam Panczuk and program directors Laura De Marco & Kate Fowler. We’ve been overwhelmed by the number of fantastic scholarship applications for this series of workshops and truly wish that we had the resources to provide each deserving applicant with the opportunity to attend.
We’re proud to announce the Emerging Photographer Scholarship winners for the PWNY 2014 European Tour!
Alina Emrich of Frankfurt, Germany received a full scholarship to attend Michael Ackerman’s workshop, The Personal Narrative in Berlin, Germany. As a young photographer, Alina has accomplished an impressive amount within her emerging career as a photojournalist. She’s worked for South India’s magazine Madura Messenger and the Sunday Times India, and has funded independent projects in India, Nepal, DRC, Congo Brazzaville and Oman. She’s currently working as an editor trainee for GEO magazine and is in the middle of a personal project about the triangular relationship between her parents and herself as an adult.
Alina submitted her project, Almost like a beautiful dream for the scholarship and we were immediately impressed by the subtlety and eloquence of her images and gestures. This project is a reflection on the evolving relationship between child and parent with age, as the child matures into adulthood. Within this long-form project, Alina photographs her parents and has also provided them with polaroid cameras to make photographic diaries of their own lives. The variations in images show the complex nature of the gaze of the child, juxtaposed with the self-representation of the adult as an individual outside of parenthood. We’re very proud to have Alina in attendance at Michael’s workshop!
Cassandra Giraldo of Brooklyn, NYC received a full scholarship to attend Stefano De Luigi’s workshop, The Expanded Image in Paris, France. Cassandra has quickly risen to become an esteemed photographer, working with highly regarded publications like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Boston Globe, The Brooklyn Paper, Le Journal de la Photographie, and The Gothamist. She works as an independent photojournalist, accepting commissions locally and abroad. Her project, The Gentle Punks was created during a workshop with Michael Ackerman in St.Petersburg with YarT Photography Workshops, and has gone on to be exhibited internationally in publications and galleries.
Cassandra submitted The Gentle Punks for her scholarship application and we were impressed by the tenderness of the images– the subject of which is rarely shown with such a measured understanding. Within this project, Cassandra temporarily embedded herself within a small community of antifascist activists living in opposition to Putin-era politics. Although they are culturally acknowledged as a group that lives on the fringes, she found a universal commonality to their politics, dreams and political leanings. This understanding of youthful disenchantment, which extends from Russia to the United States and beyond, makes this work transcendent of its location. It’s a subject that speaks to the heart of the international young, coming of age in an era of expanding globalization. We warmly welcome Cassandra to our workshop with Stefano!
Ilias Georgiadis of Athens, Greece received a full scholarship to attend Michael Ackerman’s workshop, The Personal Narrative in Berlin, Germany. Ilias has a diverse range of experience within the photography field, having worked as an independent fine artist, curator and publisher of the online photography magazine, Coil. His work has been featured throughout Europe as a part of Temps Zero Projections, alongside artists like Jacob Aue Sobol (Magnum) and Michael Ackerman (VU). Ilias’s recent project Over|State has been shown throughout Europe and has been featured in publications and traveling shows.
Ilias submitted Over|State for his scholarship application and we were inspired by his graphic use of photography to convey emotion and movement. This project is an effort for Ilias to overcome struggles with interpersonal relationships, substance abuse and loneliness. Ilias uses his camera as a tool to observe isolationist instincts and a desire for darkness– to seek the connection between darkness and light and to find a balance between the two. We’re excited to see Ilias in Michael’s workshop in Berlin!
Luisa Hubner of Vienna, Austria received a half scholarship to attend Adam Panczuk’s workshop, Stories of the Landscape in Warsaw, Poland. Luisa’s ephemeral photography has found a home in the fine art world as she has studied under masters in the field like Rinko Kawauchi, Cristina De Middel and Calin Kruse. Her work has a visual consistency that eschews specific projects in exchange for the impact of the each singular image.
Luisa submitted a series of polaroids for her scholarship application. These scanned photographs almost function as temporal objects, which seem to be fading from her dreamlike imagery to a white absence. Her images remind us of the ephemeral and intangible nature of the photographic image and the inherent link a picture has to memory; as time alters and frays its content and masks our understanding of the context in which it was taken. We’re thrilled to have Luisa’s painterly eye in Adam’s workshop in Warsaw, Poland!
Simone Sapienza of Sicily, Italy received a half scholarship to attend Stefano De Luigi’s workshop The Expanded Image in Paris, France. Simone is quickly developing as a regarded artist and journalist from Italy, placing 1st in the PDN Edu 2014 awards, and for the IPA International Photography Award, the Kolga Award 2014, the 57th Basillio Cascella Award, the 2013 IPA Award, among others. His work has been exhibited widely throughout Europe and he has been published in National Geographic Italy. He’s currently working on a long-form multimedia project entitled The Hyperreal War, which reflects on the gaming industry surrounding war and its function as a simulacrum that attempts to make the virtual as symbolically real as possible.
Simone submitted The Hyperreal War for his scholarship application and we were greatly impressed by the comprehensiveness of his project, as well as the thought-provoking questions that arise from his opening essay. Simone’s project delves into the complex world of simulated war and the nuanced layers of enacting violence as play. The straight-foward images he presents are reminiscent of the photographs created by contemporary war photographers, bringing into question the validity of representations of war and the transition young men make from performing war as a spectacle to participating in war, as a reality and function of life.
Once again, we would like to congratulate all of our scholarship recipients and to thank everyone that applied for the 2014 European Tour! Enrollment is still open to students of all ages & nationalities for all 6 workshops! They are filling quickly, so don’t hesitate to apply now. For more information on the 2014 European Tour, please visit http://www.photoworkshopnewyork.com.