ALLENDALE, N.J., Oct. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the
launch of the Leica Women Foto Project earlier this year – a
platform dedicated to the expansion of diversity and inclusion in
photography – Leica Camera USA is
proud to announce the three recipients of the inaugural Leica Women
Foto Project Award. From over 600 submissions across the United States, photographers Debi Cornwall, Yana Paskova and Eva Woolridge were selected by a prestigious
panel of judges in the photography, art and entertainment
industries to each receive $10,000
and a Leica Q2 to pursue a personal project that tells a story
through the female viewpoint.
Debi Cornwall was chosen for her
series Necessary Fictions, which explores the staging and
performance of American power in immersive, realistic military
wargames. In this project, Cornwall photographs the mysterious
country of "Atropia." Though fictional, Atropia actually exists:
mock Afghan and Iraqi villages have been constructed on military
bases across the United States to
host immersive, realistic military training exercises for troops
preparing to deploy. On ten such sites around the country, Cornwall
documents these mock villages, battle scenarios, and "cultural
role-players," with the goal of examining how fictions are deployed
and embraced, and to invite critical inquiry among military and
civilian viewers alike about a society in which war has become the
rule rather than the exception. Cornwall will use the funding from
the Leica Women Foto Project Award to continue the story of
Necessary Fictions and to explore how fiction and reality
blur within the post-9/11 "fantasy-industrial complex."
Yana Paskova is a Bulgaria-born, Chicago-bred, Brooklyn-based photojournalist and writer who
uses her experience as a political asylum immigrant to find a way
to bridge humans' understanding of each other. Paskova will utilize
the award funds to continue developing her photographic series,
Where Women Rule. She describes the project as "a visual and
sociological look at what happens when cultural norms of gender are
amended or removed — via the all-female societies across the world,
where women gather for shelter or in matriarchy — leaving us with
new notions of femininity and masculinity, human bonds, family, and
the fluid boundaries of identity."
As told through her lens as a self-proclaimed African-American
and Chinese-American queer woman, Eva
Woolridge will round out the inaugural LWFP recipient class
by bringing her personal experiences to life in her project The
Size of a Grapefruit. The series is an artistic interpretation
of Woolridge's medically traumatic experiences following her
diagnosis of a dermoid cyst - the size of a grapefruit – and
consequential removal of her right ovary, which she believes could
have been saved had medical professionals taken swifter action
following their early conversations. With the assistance of the
Leica Women Foto Project, Woolridge aims to bring to light more
stories of black women worldwide who experience racial bias through
a visual representation of their perseverance, grit and subsequent
empowerment cultivated from their specific challenges.
"The Leica Women Foto Project is a keystone program for Leica
Camera USA as we expand
opportunities to amplify visual stories told through the lenses of
underrepresented perspectives. The overwhelming response of
hundreds of USA-based submissions
in just our first year alone is indicative of the ongoing need for
platforms that invite conversations that provoke new ways of
seeing." says Kiran Karnani,
Director of Marketing for Leica Camera
North America. "We welcome Debi, Yana, and Eva to the Leica
family of storytellers and we look forward to the continued
evolution of their impactful stories."
The projects submitted by Cornwall, Paskova, and Woolridge were
carefully selected by five influential women in the photography,
art and entertainment industries, which included:
- Karin Kaufmann, Art
Director & Chief Representative, Leica Galleries
International
- Maggie Steber, VII Agency
photographer and Guggenheim fellow
- Elizabeth Avedon,
photography book and exhibition designer, independent curator and
writer
- Laura Roumanos, executive
producer and co-founder, United Photo Industries
- Deborah Willis,
university professor and Chair of the Department of Photography
& Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts
at New York University and author of Envisioning
Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery
The Q2s Cornwall, Paskova and Woolridge will each receive will
initially be provided as one-year loans to kickstart a legacy
program helping to foster community among recipients. At the end of
the term, the cameras will be passed on to the next three winners
of the 2020 award. A replacement Leica camera will be offered to
the initial set of recipients to continue documenting their journey
through the lens of a Leica.
All three women will showcase photographs from their respective
projects in a joint exhibit at Leica Gallery Boston beginning
March 5, 2020 through April 26, 2020 where visitors can view the
journey of their personal projects. To learn more about the Leica
Women Foto Project Award and the 2019 recipients, visit
http://bit.ly/Leica_Women and @leicacamerausa on Instagram,
Facebook and Twitter.
About Leica Camera
Leica represents a union of craftsmanship, design and experience.
It is a beautiful collision of art and engineering, and the future
of form and functionality. Leica
Camera, headquartered in Wetzlar, Germany, is an internationally operating,
premium-segment manufacturer of cameras and sport optics products.
The legendary status of the Leica brand is founded on a long
tradition of excellence in the supreme quality and performance of
cameras and lenses, and the iconic images that artists and
photojournalists everywhere captured with them. For more
information about Leica visit www.leicacamerausa.com, or follow the
brand on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Press Contact
M Booth PR: Leica@mbooth.com /
212-481-7000
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SOURCE Leica Camera USA