Photography

GFC/ICP Fellowship



The Global Fund for Children (GFC) and the International Center of Photography (ICP) jointly administer a fellowship program that sends promising photographers to developing countries to capture positive images of children. GFC's vision of a world where children grow up to be productive, caring citizens of a global society complements ICP's emphasis on photography's role in promoting social justice. Through this program, GFC seeks to use the power of photography to highlight the hope and opportunity cultivated by its grantee partners in the vulnerable children they serve. ICP seeks to inspire select students and teachers to practice documentary photography by giving them the opportunity to travel to GFC's grantee partners around the world.

2008/2009 Fellow, Jesse Newman
Jesse Newman has worked in underrepresented communities in both the United States and abroad. As a GFC/ICP fellow, she documented the lives of indigenous Guatemalan villagers in the heart of Mayan country, and Karen and Karenni refugees living in camps along the Thai-Burma border. Closer to home, she has worked on documentary projects with the Lakota people in South Dakota and in Athabaskan and Yupik communities along the Yuk'on River in Alaska.

For me, photography is about exploration and connection. It is a process of immersing myself in different worlds, some strange, others deeply familiar, in the hopes of understanding them myself and translating them for others, Jesse says.

Prior to pursuing a career in photography, Jesse worked for nongovernmental organizations in South Asia, Africa, and Europe on issues such as internal displacement, children affected by armed conflict, and human trafficking. Jesse was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to document the lives of displaced women in Sri Lanka and holds a bachelor's degree from Carleton College and a master's degree from the University of Oxford. Her photographs have been published in The New York Times, Newsweek, and Time.

Click here to see Jesse Newman's photos of Asociacion para el Desarrollo Integral y Multidisciplinario APPEDIBIMI (APPEDIBIMI Association for Comprehensive and Multidisciplinary Development) and Instituto para la Superacion de la Miseria Urbana (Institute for Overcoming Urban Poverty) in Guatemala, and Women's Education for Advancement and Empowerment in Thailand.

2008/2009 Fellow, Tiana Markova Gold
Tiana Markova-Gold believes photography is more than art: it is a means of communication, dialogue, and change. Her documentary work has taken her from the South Bronx in New York to deep in the Sahara as she seeks out stories that otherwise may not be told.

While at ICP, where she received the New York Times Scholarship, Tiana began an in-depth project about the lives of women in prostitution in New York City. Her photographs of sex workers have been recognized by numerous photography contests, including the New York Photo Awards, Photo District News Annual, and the International Photography Awards. As she continues to focus on women?s rights and empowerment, Tiana says of her work, I am interested in addressing how women struggle to define themselves and challenge external definitions of what is acceptable in our lives.

For her GFC/ICP Fellowship, in partnership with the Nike Foundation, Tiana traveled to Nigeria and Brazil, where she documented the work of GFC grantee partners working to empower, protect, and educate adolescent girls. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Click here to see Tiana Markova Gold's photos fromt her visits to Associacao Excola (Excola Association), Nucleo Socio-Cultural Caixa de Sorpresas (Box of Surprises Sociocultural Center), and Associacao de Apoio as Meninas e Meninos da Regiao Se (Association for Support of Girls and Boys of the Se Region) in Brazil; and in Nigeria, Girl Child Concerns and Kudirat Initiative for Democracy.

2007/2008 Fellow: Tadej Znidarcic
Whether photographing polio victims in Nigeria or displaced persons in Kosovo, Tadej Znidarcic aims to address the social and political undercurrents that influence his subjects. I try to find stories that have a positive side to them, a social issue that people are working to improve, Tadej says of his work.

Originally from Slovenia, Tadej received a degree in physics from the University of Ljubljana before discovering his interest in photography and pursing it full-time. Tadej's first social documentary project took him to Kenya, where he volunteered at a nonprofit children's center and documented the center's work with street children. For his GFC/ICP Fellowship, Tadej photographed five GFC grantee partners in Bangladesh, India, and Romania. He has continued to work with nonprofit organizations, most recently in Uganda, where he covered a polio immunization campaign, documented projects for special needs children, and photographed adult and child literacy programs.

Tadej is a contributing photographer for Redux Pictures, and his photographs have appeared in publications in the US, UK, Italy, Germany, France, Nigeria, and Slovenia. In 2009, PDNedu published a feature story on Tadej and his work, calling him one to watch.

Click here to see Tadej Znidarcic's photos from his visits to five GFC grantee partners: Phulki (Spark) and Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha (Village Self Reliance) in Bangladesh, Kolkata Sanved (Kolkata Sensitivity) in India, and Fundatia COTE (COTE Foundation) and Asociatia Ovidiu Rom (Ovidiu Rom Association) in Romania.

2006/2007 Fellow: Malin Fezehai
I never feel like I am the creator of an image; I just wait for the moment to push the button. How the world chooses to present itself is beyond my control. That is what I find magical about photography, says Malin Fezehai. As a photographer, Malin has specialized in children, families, and daily life in all corners of the world.

After studying photography in her native Sweden, Malin moved to New York City at the age of 19 to attend the International Center of Photography. For her GFC/ICP Fellowship, Malin visited GFC grantee partners in Peru and Washington, DC; images from her fellowship were then exhibited at the Toro Mata gallery in DC. Since then, Malin?s work has been shown in London, Stockholm, New York, Copenhagen, and San Francisco.

After finishing the program at ICP, Malin volunteered at Mother Theresa's orphanage for HIV-positive children in Ethiopia, and while living in Ethiopia worked on a long-term project about children. In 2007, she began a project documenting the lives of war-displaced women and children in Sri Lanka. Malin is currently living in New York City.

Click here to see Malin Fezehai's photos of four GFC grantee partners: Life Pieces to Masterpieces in Washington, DC; and in Peru, Yanapanakusun (Let's Help Each Other), Asociacion de Defensa de la Vida (Association for the Defense of Life), and Asociacion Civil Pro Nino Intimo (Pro-Child Civil Association).

2005/2006 Fellow: Jessica Dimmock
Jessica Dimmock worked as a public school teacher in Brooklyn, NY, before attending the International Center of Photography and pursing photojournalism full-time. During her GFC/ICP Fellowship, she traveled to South Africa and Zambia to photograph GFC grantee partners working with orphans and other vulnerable youth.

While at ICP, Jessica began documenting the lives of 20 to 30 heroin addicts who lived together in an apartment in Manhattan. This intense three-year project garnered numerous grants and awards, including the Inge Morath Award from Magnum Photos and the F Award for Concerned Photography from Fabrica and Forma in Italy. Jessica has had solo exhibitions at Foam (Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam), Foley Gallery in New York, and Forma?the International Centre for Photography in Milan.

Jessica's book, The Ninth Floor, was published in 2007. Currently based in Brooklyn, Jessica was accepted into the agency VII Network in 2009 and works on personal projects as well as domestic and international assignments. Her work has appeared in Aperture, The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, The Times of London Magazine, Foam, and Photoicon. Jessica most recently directed and filmed a video for the musician Moby.

Click here to see Jessica Dimmock's photos from her travels to GFC grantee partners Children's Town in Zambia and The Wilderness Foundation in South Africa.

2004/2005 Fellow: Andrea Camuto
Andrea Camuto was the first recipient of the GFC/ICP Fellowship, with which she traveled to Cambodia and India to capture images of GFC grantee partners working to empower young woman and educate children living in extreme poverty. The GFC publication of her work, Aspire, won a 2006 Wilmer Shields Rich Award from the Council on Foundations.

Since her fellowship, Andrea has continued to explore social justice around the world, frequently in countries ravaged by war and conflict. In 2005, she covered the parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, and her photo-essay on these events was published in Ms. Magazine in 2006. Andrea's series Afghan Refugees in Transition was selected for the 2007 Photo District News Photography Annual. This work was also featured in a solo exhibition at the Corden/Potts Gallery in San Francisco and was the subject of an in-depth profile in Black & White Magazine in 2009. That same year, Andrea?s story on Burmese women crossing the border for safe healthcare appeared in Marie Claire.

Andrea's current projects include a multimedia piece about Burmese women who have been trafficked to China and Thailand, a cross-cultural study of midwifery, and a documentary on women in West Africa. Her upcoming book, spanning five years of work in Afghanistan, will be published in 2011. Andrea lives in New York City.

Click here to see Andrea Camuto's photos from her visits to GFC grantee partners Nishtha (Dedication) in India and Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development in Cambodia.