Shortlisted nominees: The Visionary Award by The Tim Hetherington Trust 2017
Five artists shortlisted for £20,000 award
Experts on five continents sent their recommendations for the Visionary Award with suggestions that included students and seasoned practitioners across a range of disciplines from photography and filmmaking to virtual reality, performance and more. But all the candidates share one common attribute: an ambition to seize this moment of change in world media to demonstrate more powerful opportunities to communicate the urgent issues of our times. The shortlist of five artists and journalists demonstrates the rich variety of themes and techniques now available to practitioners and consumers as we try to achieve a deeper understanding of the world we live in.
It is key to the objectives of the Tim Hetherington Trust that although ultimately only a single award is made, we hope to learn from the wide range of talented people who come through the selection process. For this reason the shortlist is as important as the final award and we hope that many people will catch a glimpse of these new names and take inspiration from their work.
Artists and Proposed Projects
Laia Abril
A History Of Misogyny, chapter two: On Hysteria
Poulomi Basu
A Ritual of Exile
Zackary Canepari
Flint Is A Place
Omar Imam
Syrialism (or What Syrians Want)
Andrea Ellen Reed
Unsighted
Supporting Documentarians
Stephen Mayes, Director of the Tim Hetherington Trust said of the shortlist, “None of us know where Tim's energy and imagination would have brought him in 2017, except that it would have been challenging to our expectations, inspiring in his compassion and profound in the depth of thought behind the work. The Trust is delighted to foster these characteristics with these five vibrant artists who carry this legacy forwards, each in their own different way.“
Hilary Roberts, Imperial War Museums Research Curator of Photography and one of the judges, comments, “Our need for insight and understanding of the world we live in has never been more important. The Tim Hetherington Visionary award offers artists, photographers and filmmakers a unique opportunity to explore new perspectives. Their talent, courage and ambition are truly inspirational.”
The Visionary Award by the Tim Hetherington Trust is designed to foster innovative approaches to visual storytelling by incubating visionary individuals and offer inspiration to others by example. Visual artists and journalists whose thinking and process reach beyond the limitations of conventional media practice to create engaging and dynamic communication pieces. In addition to the financial award the Trust will consult with the successful grantee to find a mentor or technical partner to help expand the scope of the project beyond initial expectations. We will work as a team with the successful candidate to make something very special. More details are available on any of these projects and the Trust Is ready to facilitate contact with the artists, now and beyond the immediate parameters of the Visionary Award.
About the Judges
Liza Faktor is a producer and curator, and a co-founder of Screen, a visual storytelling production company. She was the founding director of the Objective Reality Foundation, and the co-founder of Agency.Photographer.ru. Liza has produced video and multi-platform visual documentary projects and curated over twenty exhibitions. She is a recipient of the Howard Chapnick award for advancement of photojournalism (2002 and 2016) and has served on juries worldwide including the 2014 World Press Photo Multimedia Contest and the 2017 World Press Photo Digital Storytelling Contest.
Idil Ibrahim is a filmmaker based in the United States. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Idil has produced both narrative and documentary projects filmed in Cuba, Serbia, Japan, Turkey, Somalia, Lebanon, Kenya and Uganda as well as the US. Her work has been selected and screened at the 2009, 2010 and 2014 Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, among others. She is passionate about human rights and social issues.
Hilary Roberts is Research Curator of Photography at Imperial War Museums (IWM), Britain’s national museum of modern conflict. She studied at the universities of Sussex, Freiburg (Germany) and University College London before joining the IWM Photograph Archive as a junior curator in 1980. A specialist in the history and practice of conflict photography, Hilary has numerous publications to her name. Recent IWM exhibition projects include Don McCullin: Shaped by War (2010-2012), Cecil Beaton: Theatre of War(2012), Donovan Wylie: Vision as Power (2013), Lee Miller: A Woman’s War (2015-2016) and Edmund Clark: War of Terror (2016-2017). Hilary works closely with photographers, curators, researchers and writers who document or respond to contemporary conflict. She is currently collaborating with Sergey Ponomarev (winner of the 2016 World Press Photo and Pulitzer Prize awards) on his first British solo exhibition Sergey Ponomarev: A Lens on Syria (opens IWM London, 27 April 2017).
Louis-Richard Tremblay is passionate about the power of interactive experiences and fascinated by all forms of media exploration. He collaborates with creators who manipulate technology to serve the subject at hand, resulting in works that appeal to both the imagination and intelligence of participants. After studying political science, Louis-Richard was drawn to architecture and radio before delving into the interactive world at Radio-Canada and the NFB. His productions have won numerous local and international awards (Online Journalism Award, Webby, Peabody…).