Canon Female Photojournalist Grant 2019 – Winner
Armenian photographer Anush Babajanyan has been named as the winner of the 19th Canon Female Photojournalist Award.
The prize, which comes with an €8,000 Canon Female Photojournalist Grant, is awarded annually to “an outstanding photographer in recognition of her contribution to photojournalism”.
Anush will receive her award at the closing event of the Visa pour l’Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan in September. University Avenue, a study of inequality in California’s Bay Area by last year’s winner, Laura Morton, will be on show at the festival. In 2020, Anush will exhibit her own body of work produced for the award, focusing on large families in Nagorno Karabakh.
A disputed border territory, Nagorno Karabakh is recognized as part of Azerbaijan but in practice, it is largely ruled by the Republic of Artsakh, a de facto independent state within Armenia. There has been ongoing conflict over the region since the Soviet era, with some 30,000 deaths since 1988, despite an official, Russian-mediated ceasefire being declared in 1994.
About the Author
Armenian photographer Anush Babajanyan focuses her work on social narratives related to women, issues of minorities and the aftermath of the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh, among others.
In addition to working extensively in the Caucasus, she also continues to photograph in Turkey, the Middle East, and West Africa.
Much of Anush Babajanyan’s recent activity has been dedicated to peacebuilding processes between Armenia and Turkey. In 2016, she co-founded the #BridgingStories project that brought together young photographers from Turkey and Armenia, in an effort to bridge peace between the two nations.
Anush is currently hand-making her first book, the House of Culture, about the memory of Soviet Armenian culture houses.
Before joining VII, Anush co-founded and was a member of women photographers’ collective 4Plus.
Anush received a grant from the Open Society Foundations Documentary Photography Project in 2013 assisting her continuous work between Armenia and Turkey.
Anush Babajanyan’s photography has been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, National Geographic, Foreign Policy Magazine, and various other international publications.
