$20,000 Getty Images/The Chris Hondros Fund Award winner announced
American photographer, Bryan Denton, has been chosen to receive the annual Getty Images and Chris Hondros Fund award. A grant of US$20,000 will be provided to support his ongoing documentary photography work. The fifth year that this grant has been awarded, the Chris Hondros Fund Award was established to honour the Getty Images photojournalist, Chris Hondros, who was killed on 20 April, 2011 while on assignment in Libya.
Based in Beirut, Lebanon, since 2006, Denton has completed assignments in the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and Afghanistan for prestigious titles such as The New York Times, Newsweek, TIME, The Wall Street Journal and Monocle. This is not the first time that Denton has been recognised by this award, having been selected as a finalist in 2013.
Denton said that he was deeply touched to have been selected as this year’s recipient of an award that seeks to carry on Hondos’ legacy as a photographer, and as a mentor and colleague in our industry. “I was lucky enough to have been friends with Chris, which makes this accolade a bittersweet motivation to keep pushing my work forward, and to do so with the kindness, grace and spirit that Chris embodied both in his work and in life,” Denton said.
Iranian photographer, Kiana Hayeri, received the US$5,000 grant for an emerging photojournalist recipient. This grant is presented to a student photographer or an emerging photojournalist whose work demonstrates exceptional promise and who is committed to documenting a visual history of newsworthy events.
Having grown up in Tehran, Iran, Hayeri migrated to Toronto when she was a teenager. She embraced photography as a way of bridging the gap in language and culture. Her self-initiated work explores complex topics such as migration and adolescence, and her work has appeared in publications such as Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Monocle, The Sunday Times and The Washington Post.
Bryan Denton biography
Bryan Denton is an award-winning freelance photographer based in Beirut, Lebanon. He began his career covering cultural issues and conflicts in the Arab World after graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, focusing on Photography and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. Based in Lebanon since 2006, Denton is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, and has also completed assignments throughout the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and Afghanistan for TIME, Newsweek, Stern, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair Italy, Der Spiegel, Monocle, and Human Rights Watch. Selected to participate in the 2014 World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass, Denton's work has also been recognized by Pictures of the Year, the Chris Hondros Fund, The Magenta Foundation, Px3, Prix-Bayeux Calvados and Foto8, among others.
About Kiana Hayeri
Kiana Hayeri (b.1988) grew up in Tehran, Iran and migrated to Toronto while she was still a teenager. Faced with the challenges of adapting to a new environment, she took up photography as a way of bridging the gap in language and culture. After an incident in her personal life, while still in university, she packed her life in a backpack and started a nomadic life to search for a place that could be called home. She has worked internationally, but remains focused on stories that illuminate her background. Her self-initiated and self-funded projects often explore complex topics such as migration, adolescence and sexuality.
Hayeri was an IAAB fellow in 2011 and completed a CIS artist residency at MIT University in the following year. In 2014, she was named as one of the emerging photographers by PDN 30 Under 30. In 2016, she was selected for IWMF fellowship to report on her proposed story in Rwanda and DRC. Hayeri is a TED fellow and her work has appeared in Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Washington Post, Sunday Times Magazine, Monocle Magazine, Aljazeera America and CBC, amongst other.
She is currently based out of Kabul, Afghanistan, covering the region.
About the award
The Chris Hondros Fund award was created to honour Getty Images photojournalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Chris Hondros, who was killed on 20 April, 2011 while on assignment in Misrata, Libya. This award celebrates Hondros’ legacy by drawing attention to the ways in which photojournalism shines a light on shared human experiences. Established by Christina Piaia, Chris Hondros’ fiancée, and with the support of his family, the Chris Hondros Fund advances the work of photojournalists who espouse his legacy and vision. Now in its fifth year, the fund sponsors fellowships, grants and education to raise understanding of the issues facing reporters in conflict zones.