Meet the recipients of the Canon Female Photojournalist Grant

The Canon Female Photojournalist Grant, established in 2000, is awarded annually at the Visa pour l'Image festival in September. The €8,000 grant is given to an "outstanding photographer in recognition of her contribution to photojournalism," and is designed to either support the completion of an existing project or facilitate the making of a new one – which is then exhibited at the following year's festival.

For its recipients, the grant can prove to be life-changing, both in the vital funding that it provides, and also because of the platform it gives the photographer's work. The talents of several previous recipients have been recognised with some going on to receive World Press Photo awards and Pulitzer Prizes, while others have become brand ambassadors and started collaborating with leading international publications.

The jury has comprised of journalists and editors from The New York Times, Le Monde, Conde Nast, CNN Digital, The Guardian, Magnum and FOAM magazine and others, and has granted recipients the opportunity to document stories from across the world.

"This Canon grant is priceless. It came at just the right time," says 2020 winner Sabiha Çimen. Self-taught Istanbul-based documentary photographer Sabiha won the grant for her ongoing series Hafiz: the Guardians of Qur'an, which documents the Muslim girls who attempt to memorise the whole Qur'an – a total of 30 books and 6,236 verses – in a tradition that has continued for almost 1,500 years. "I've been working on this project for three years, and I still needed support to finalise it," Sabiha explains.

Beyond the ability to continue or complete their photojournalistic pursuits, here, former recipients reveal what the award meant to them, and offer advice for the next generation of participants.

One of the biggest challenges photojournalists face is securing the funds needed to sustain self-initiated long-term projects.

"Grants and funding opportunities are scarce and highly competitive," shares Cynthia Boll, 2024 recipient of the Canon Female Photojournalist Grant. "Even after completion, finding the right platform for publication or exhibition remains a struggle. Despite these difficulties, I continue to pursue these projects, driven by passion and a deep belief in the importance of storytelling," she continues. And it is this drive for storytelling that, with the help of a grant, has enabled female photojournalists to publish the stories that are important to them.

"If you do a project off your own back, you should enter grants and awards," says Magali Delporte, the grant's first recipient, in 2001, with Unseen: Sport Without Sight, exploring the achievements of disabled athletes.

"Not only does the grant bring financial help, it also helps to raise your visibility and get your stories published. After all, we don't want our work to stay hidden on a hard drive." Winning the inaugural grant helped the French photojournalist fund five sports projects, and her work has since appeared in The Financial Times, Le Monde and Le Figaro.

In 2023, photojournalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind was awarded the grant for her ongoing project ‘5K from the Frontline’. Anastasia photographed frontline communities in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region since 2014 and, with the aid of the grant, continued to document the same families as they faced the full-scale Russian invasion. Her images speak of the enduring will to live and the resistance of maintaining everyday routines despite war.

When documentary photographer Natalya Saprunova applied for the Canon Female Photojournalist Grant in 2022, it had been two years since she graduated from the photojournalism training at the EMI CFD school in Paris and had been independently working on stories related to School dropouts, Sufi community, migrant workers in France and indigenous communities in Russia. The aim of her application was two fold.

"First I wanted to present my work to the jury to introduce myself and, at the same time, I hoped to gain the support to continue my work with deeper engagement and impact," she said. Her application won her the grant to help carry out her project on the Evenki indigenous people and their culture in Yakutia in the Russian Far East.

Unlike Magali, who won on her first attempt, Franco-Spanish photojournalist Catalina Martin-Chico proved that if at first you don't succeed, try and try again: she received the grant on her ninth attempt in 2017 with her images of a baby boom among former FARC insurgents in Colombia.

"The grant changed a lot of things," she says. "It brought huge visibility – not only for me, but for a story which many magazines didn't want to publish. When I started, I used my own money, which obviously only went so far. To tell the story post-conflict I had to go back. The grant gave me the chance to do that."

Catalina advises writing a "clear and accurate" proposal: "Feel how deeply you want to tell this story and you'll be convincing. You don't need to write a lot, but you need to explain why the story is important."

She says becoming Canon Female Photojournalist of the year changed people's opinions of her. "It helped me gain respect within the industry. Women need that visibility, through showing strong work, and this is a chance to achieve that." Catalina went on to win second prize in the Contemporary Issues category at the 2019 World Press Photo awards; one of her images was nominated for World Press Photo of the Year.

Perseverance also paid off for Cynthia Boll, who eventually won the grant in 2024 after eight attempts. Since her first application in 2011, not only had the subject of her story developed significantly, but so did her learnings as a photojournalist in a competitive industry.

"Even if you don’t win, it doesn’t mean your idea isn’t good or important. The process of applying itself is valuable; it helps you refine your project, clarify your vision, and prepare for future opportunities. How you start doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you start. And be prepared to be persistent," she enthuses.

Claudia Guadarrama received the grant in 2005 for her long-term project Before the Limit, which documented migrants travelling through Central America and Mexico in the hope of reaching the US.

Based in Mexico City, documentary photographer Claudia Guadarrama typically focuses on political and social issues in Latin America and has seen her images appear in The New Yorker, TIME, Le Monde and The Guardian. As well as the practical support that came from receiving the grant, she found the recognition particularly welcome.

"I was, and still am, profoundly grateful to have been awarded this grant," she says. "It was a great personal and professional support, especially as I face the challenge of working in a country where there is a great gender bias, a violent and sexist culture, and within an industry where women have to deal with gender inequality and the lack of opportunities."

Cynthia agrees, saying, "I consider the Canon Female Photojournalist Grant as a great opportunity to be part of a movement that empowers and amplifies female voices in photojournalism."

The support afforded by the grant is a theme which also resonates with the recipient of the 2019 award, Armenian photographer Anush Babajanyan, a member of VII Photo who focuses on social narratives concerning women, minorities, the environment and the aftermath of the conflict in South Caucasus. She works with UNICEF, and her photos have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She encourages others to enter, even if you feel nervous about doing so.

"I am touched by the recognition, but the most important part has been the support," Anush says. "The freedom to continue working is all a storyteller really needs. It's an amazing opportunity and it does not take long to enter – put aside any doubts and send in your very best work."

Unlike many recipients of the grant, American documentary photographer and 2018 winner Laura Morton used the grant to pursue a new story: University Avenue explored two neighbouring communities in California's Bay Area separated by a stark wealth gap.

"I'd had the idea for a while, but I knew it was a complicated project that would take a long time," says Laura, who shot much of University Avenue on a Canon EOS R with a Canon RF 35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM lens. "The grant gave me the financial freedom to carve out that time. Time to work is a gift for a documentary photographer, and a grant allows for deeper and more subtle stories to develop.

"When it comes to entering, decide what's unique about your voice and story. This is a tough business, but having unique ideas goes a long way." Laura focuses on economics and wealth. Her images have appeared in publications including National Geographic, Marie Claire, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

For Axelle de Russé, being selected as Canon Female Photojournalist in 2007 for her photo story on concubines in China proved to be a pivotal moment in her career.

"Receiving the grant was, for me, a source of enormous pressure, but so instructive," she says. "It was the trigger, the founding moment of my career. Every story I produce today is based on the steps and initiatives I took at that time. It taught me how to build a story."

In 2014, she followed the daily lives of sexual violence victims in the French army, and since 2016 has been documenting the consequences of global warming in the Arctic.

"I'll always view this grant as special: it carried me forward and pushed me to continue; it gave me the confidence to become the photographer I am today.”

At the time of applying in 2022, Paris-based documentary photographer Natalya Saprunova felt discouraged as a photojournalist. The subjects of her stories were set in Russian territory and, as the war in Ukraine was becoming more and more impactful, the press were refusing to publish her work. But she continued to believe in herself despite current events overshadowing her long-term stories she was working on.

"I applied at the moment when I had completed the first chapter of my work on the Saami people in Russia and the loss of their nomadic lifestyle due to forced settlement during the Soviet era. My advice: apply, even if you have doubts, thinking that the work isn’t “ready” or “good enough”. Take the chance to work on the application, it helps to refine your project and to move forward," she enthuses. Natalya now focuses on societal issues related to environmental and climate crises, especially related to the permafrost thaw across the far north. Her pictures have appeared in publications including Washington Post, Geo, Le Figaro, The Guardian, Le Pèlerin, Corriera Della Sera, The Globe and Mail.

2024 Cynthia Boll

2023 Anastasia Taylor-Lind

2022 Natalya Saprunova

2021 Acacia Johnson

2020 Sabiha Çimen

2019 Anush Babajanyan

2018 Laura Morton

2017 Catalina Martin-Chico

2016 Darcy Padilla

2015 Anastasia Rudenko

2014 Viviane Dalles

2013 Mary F Calvert

2012 Sarah Caron

2011 Ilvy Njiokiktjien

2010 Martina Bacigalupo

2009 Justyna Mielnikiewicz

2008 Brenda Ann Kenneally

2007 Axelle de Russé

2006 Véronique de Viguerie

2005 Claudia Guadarrama

2004 Kristen Ashburn

2003 Ami Vitale

2002 Sophia Evans

2001 Magali Delporte