Reuters supports photojournalism with the announcement of 2018 grant winners

LONDON, May 16, 2018 – Reuters, the world’s largest international multimedia news provider, today announced the recipients of its photojournalism grant program which seeks to recruit and develop a diverse new generation of photojournalists.

The winning photojournalists will each receive a $5,000 USD grant to advance their abilities and tell new stories, and pictures taken by the recipients will be distributed globally on Reuters platforms.

Yannis Behrakis, Reuters photojournalist and senior editor, special projects, will advise recipients on their assignments and projects, providing advice and planning assistance. Yannis is well known for his coverage of the European migrant crisis and was part of a team of Reuters Pictures photographers awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for their coverage of the crisis in 2016.

The winning photojournalists are:

• Tbilisi-based Daro Sulakauri, whose work includes a hidden narrative of the Chechen conflict.
• Ekaterina Anchevskaya, who finds inspiration in her Russian homeland and its distinct culture.
• Gabriel Scarlett, a student whose work so far has examined social issues in the U.S.
• Alexandria-based Egyptian visual researcher and photographer Heba Khamis.
• Houston-based Loren Elliott, whose recent work has focused on the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Bolivian photographer Manuel Seoane who has covered migrant communities in La Paz.
• Documentary photographer Nicky Woo, who divides her time between NYC and Tanzania.
• Thomas Nicolon, who covers wildlife conservation and environmental issues in Central Africa.

"The Reuters Pictures grant program gives a rare opportunity to eight photojournalists, from diverse backgrounds and from around the world, to work with Reuters and develop their talent. I will be dedicating plenty of time to mentor each of them and help them understand in depth the needs of the industry in the digital age,” said Yannis Behrakis, Reuters photojournalist and senior editor, special projects.

“The work of our grant winners will be seen by a global audience through Reuters platforms, bringing new stories from new perspectives which might otherwise go untold."

Reuters

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Notes to Editors

Photographs of the winners and samples of their work are available on request.

Winning photographers

Daro Sulakauri

Daro Sulakauri is a Georgian photojournalist, currently based in Tbilisi.

After obtaining a degree from the Department of Cinematography in Tbilisi, she moved to New York to study photography at the International Center of Photography. Before graduating in 2006, she was awarded the John and Mary Phillips Scholarship and was also recognised by the ICP Director's Fund.

Upon completing her studies, she returned to the Pankisi Gorge in her native Georgia to document a hidden narrative of the Chechen conflict in an outpost of refugees who crossed to Georgia from Chechnya and have remained in relative isolation ever since. The project won second place in the Magnum Foundation's Young Photographer in the Caucasus Award in 2009.

Daro has won a Lensculture award for her story on early marriages in Georgia, as well as an EU Prize for Journalism. She was included in the ‘30 under 30’ list of women photographers and Photo District News' 30 emerging photographers to watch. She participated in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in 2017.

As a freelance photojournalist, her work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, National Geographic, der Spiegel, Forbes Magazine and others.

Ekaterina Anchevskaya

Originally from Russia, Ekaterina finds her inspiration in her homeland and its distinct culture. She moved to London to study Photojournalism and Documentary Film, but is currently based between Russia and Turkey where she is working on a long-term story.

Ekaterina’s interest is focused on Eastern Europe, Siberia, the Middle East and the Caucasus. She works with both still photography and video.

She was awarded with an Environmental Bursary from the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and was selected as one of Getty Reportage Emerging Talents. Ekaterina worked with Le Monde, Vice, Another Magazine, was exhibited in Russia, UK, Spain, Colombia and screened in Morocco, Portugal and UK.

Gabriel Scarlett

Gabriel Scarlett (b. 1996) is a junior at Western Kentucky University, studying Photojournalism and Arabic while pursuing his EMT-B certification in Emergency Medicine.

He has worked at the Denver Post and will work at the Los Angeles Times this coming summer. He documents all that which he finds culturally or visually interesting and so far his work has examined social issues throughout the United States, with special interest in stories of environmental racism and economic divide.

On the collegiate level, his work has been recognized by the Alexia Foundation, Hearst Journalism Awards, College Photographer of the Year, Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, Kentucky News Photographers Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists. He has received scholarships from the James Alan Cox Foundation, National Press Photographers Foundation, Northern Short Course, and the Western Kentucky University Photojournalism Program.

Heba Khamis

Heba Khamis an Egyptian visual researcher and photographer. She recently won first prize for the Contemporary Issues stories category in the World Press Photo 2018 Awards. In 2017 she took part in the World Press Photo Joop Swart masterclass. Khamis was also awarded with the PHmuseum Women Photographers Grant and was commended in the 2017 Ian Parry Scholarship.

She concentrates on social issues that are sometimes ignored. After graduating with a degree in painting, Heba changed careers to work as a photojournalist, covering the two revolutions in Egypt and their aftermath. Later her photography developed to a more documentary style after volunteering in Uganda and Khamis became more focused on social and humanitarian issues. She is working on mixing her artistic skills and the photojournalistic experience to develop her own style of documentation.

Recently she has documented breast ironing in Cameroon, Refugees working as gay prostitutes in Germany and transgendered people in Egypt.

Loren Elliott

Loren Elliott is a freelance photojournalist living and working in Houston, Texas, USA. After completing an internship at The Tampa Bay Times in 2016, Elliott was hired full-time at the newspaper. In Florida he covered stories on immigration, environment, incarceration and politics, as well as Hurricane Irma and the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub. Elliott left the newspaper to freelance at the start of 2018. Much of his work so far in Texas has focused on the U.S.-Mexico border, where he has tried to show what immigration really looks like in the increasingly politicized Rio Grande Valley. Elliott is a native of Northern California.

Manuel Seoane

Manuel Seoane is a Bolivian photographer. He works for a small local newspaper called Qamasa – an Aymara word that means Courage – that covers all kind of events involving migrant communities settled in La Paz. With such work he was shortlisted at the Lucie Foundation Scholarship, IILA Fotografía - Festival Internazionale di Roma and Photography Grant contest. He has published in international media such as Lens New York Times, Télérama (France), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Germany) and Huck Magazine (UK). He is founder and an active member of the collective Fotografía Sinmotivo. In 2011 he was part of project The Journey to Heart of Bolivia, which later won the Elizabeth Neuffer International Prize for Journalism, awarded by the UN in New York.

Nicky Woo

Nicky Woo is a Black/Polynesian documentary photographer who divides her time between New York and Africa. Her fascination with the tenacity of the spirit deeply influences her approach to image making. After studying psychology in college, Nicky realised that she was more interested in celebrating the nuances and intricacies of our human condition than in dismantling them. She went on to further her education at Parson’s School of Design. In Nicky’s time as independent freelance photographer her clients have included Der Spiegel, BuzzFeed, Marie Claire, CNN, Men's Health and Interview magazines.

Thomas Nicolon

Thomas Nicolon is a reporter, photographer and film-maker covering wildlife conservation and environmental issues in Central Africa. After living in Australia and Bolivia for two years, he settled in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2015, where he decided to document conservation in conflict zones. Since then he has pursued his passion for exploring wild places by going to remote national parks and becoming a contributor to National Geographic France, Le Monde, Mongabay, Africa Geographic and others. As a film-maker, Thomas collaborates with news channels France 24, ARTE, as well as NGOs for the likes of the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF). He believes that documenting conservation in such hostile areas can make a difference and raise awareness worldwide.

Yannis Behrakis

Yannis Behrakis is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist. Born in 1960 in Athens, Greece, he studied photography at the Athens School of Arts and Technology and received his BA (Honors) in arts from Middlesex University. A photojournalist for Reuters since 1987, he has covered some of the most important news stories and sports events of the last three decades around the world.

Behrakis has been awarded with the industry’s top international awards and named three times European photojournalist of the year by FUJI. He also received awards twice from Pictures of the Year international in Missouri University (POYi), the Best of Photojournalism NPPA, the World Press Photo, Days Japan, the Overseas Press Club of America and three times by the Normandy Prix de Bayeux Award for war correspondents. In 2015 The Guardian and Reuters named him photojournalist of the year.

Yannis is a mentor and teacher of photojournalism and since 2017 is the Reuters pictures ambassador.

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