Meet the 2023 Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant Winners

Year Three of the Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant

In times like these, powerful storytelling tools such as photography remind us of our humanity and allow us to bear witness to the joys as well as the horrors of today's world. As the Pulitzer Center continues to uplift the work of photojournalists globally, we are pleased to announce the 2023 Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant winners.

In our ongoing partnership with Diversify Photo, the Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant supports projects by independent photojournalists historically underrepresented in the global media landscape.

Learn more about the grantees below:

Nitashia Johnson is a multimedia artist and educator from Dallas, Texas. Her freelance photography and videography have been featured by outlets such as The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, NBC, The Washington Post, and CNN. Johnson’s Eyewitness project, The Faces That Face, will delve into the stories of seven individuals, including herself, who have resided near the Dallas GAF roofing manufacturing facility.

Juan Arredondo is a Colombian-American photographer and filmmaker exploring social inequality, human rights, and conflict. Arredondo’s project, The Uncounted, will take an up-close look at the challenges of recording the basic metrics of the bookends of life: birth and death. He will focus on rural regions of Colombia on the Pacific Coast, where inadequate registries are widespread, including missing documentation of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.

Tatsiana Chypsanava is a photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Born in Belarus and a descendant of the Komi peoples of the Siberian North-West Ural, she focuses on Indigenous rights, migration, and environmental issues. Chypsanava's project Te Urewera, will document the Tūhoe people's relationship with their land, their challenges, and their plans to reopen the rainforest to the public on the 10th anniversary of the government returning the former national park to its Indigenous stewards.

Three years after this grant started, our former Eyewitness grantees continue to bring their photography to American classrooms, journalism conferences, and galleries. We are immensely proud of their work and look forward to what the next year will bring for these photographers.

We hope you will join us in celebrating these photojournalists. You can learn more about them and their forthcoming projects here.

All the best,

IMPACT

Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellow Jane Kang Lawrence will be presenting her fellowship work to her new school district in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Lawrence has developed a curriculum that promotes underreported stories through the art of printmaking. The impact of this work has been documented on her website and in this short YouTube video. 

In the clip, one of Lawrence’s students shares the role of art in telling underreported stories: “It is important to acknowledge how powerful art can be. It can be used to confront issues and create social change because art is a type of language.”

This message first appeared in the November 10, 2023, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter. Subscribe today.

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