Getty Images and Women Photograph has crowned photographer Nadia Shira Cohen as the the inaugural winner of the Getty Images Women Photograph Grant. The $10,000 grant will support Cohen’s project “Yo No Di a Luz” that explores the complete prohibition on abortion in El Salvador, and the many ways in which the criminal abortion ban affects the country’s women.
“The Getty Images Women Photograph Grant really spoke to me because of its focus not only of elevating the voice of women photojournalists but also that the recipient would be someone who has a personal connection with the community they are capturing,” said Nadia Shira Cohen. “El Salvador is known as being a volatile place, but I feel confident with my connection to the community there and the funding from the grant that I can continue to shine a light on the dramatic repression of reproductive rights of the women of El Salvador.”
Selected by an industry-leading panel, Cohen’s work was chosen from more than 400 entries from women photographers in dozens of countries. The grant aims to promote gender diversity within professional photojournalism and is awarded to a professional photojournalist who has demonstrated a long-term commitment to their story.
“Nadia Shira Cohen’s work on the impact of the criminal ban on abortion in El Salvador is at once informative and impactful, and also beautifully rendered with a compassionate eye,” said Sandy Ciric, Director of Photography at Getty Image.
“Although the topic of reproductive rights is not a new one, Cohen shines a fresh light on the hardships facing El Salvador’s women.”
Daniella Zalcman, Photographer and Founder of Women Photograph said, “Women Photograph’s grants program was created to provide additional support to independent women and non-binary photojournalists in the field to continue to amplify their voices as storytellers. As we work towards a truly inclusive industry, partnerships like this with Getty Images are crucial to advancing our mission.”
An esteemed panel of industry-leading panellists judged a geographically diverse group of artists:
- Mallory Benedict, Managing Director, Women Photograph and Photo Editor, National Geographic
- Sandy Ciric, Director of Photography, Getty Images
- Shaminder Dulai, Editor and Visual Journalist
- Sandra Stevenson, Picture Editor, The New York Times
- Ariel Zambelich, Senior Photo Editor, The Intercept
The Getty Images Women Photograph Grant forms part of the Getty Images Grants program, which exists to support the world’s most innovative photographers and tell important world stories. Since the inception of the program 12 years ago, the company has awarded in excess of US$1.4 million.
For more information about the Getty Images Grants program, please visit Where We Stand.
Award winning photographer Nadia Shira CohenBiography – Nadia Shira Cohen
Nadia Shira Cohen is a freelance photojournalist contributing to the New York Times, National Geographic, Harpers and many international publications. She works frequently in Latin America as well as countries such as Haiti, Kazakhstan, Congo, Rwanda, and Kosovo, focusing on human rights, reproductive rights, environmental issues, disaster, revolution, and migration. Nadia was born in Boston in 1977. At 15 she received her first camera, in the same moment she was diagnosed with cancer. She began to make self-portraits to document the physical and emotional evolution of being sick as well as to photograph her fellow oncology patients at Mass General Hospital in Boston. A University of Vermont graduate, she began her career in New York City as a stringer for the Associated Press. She became proficient in the photography business, working as a photography agent at Sipa Press and later as the Director of North America for VII Photo Agency. Nadia moved to Rome in 2007 where she has been based since, save for a brief period in Geneva while becoming a staff photographer at the ICRC. Her work has been exhibited internationally and she is an IWMF Fellow and a Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting grant recipient for her work on gold mining in Romania. Her work has been exhibited in Russia, Brussels, Mexico, Italy, and Peru.
