Picture Stories by Stephen Alvarez

Ambrym Volcano, Vanuatu

Steam pours out of Ambrym volcano. 

One of my favorite things about being a photographer is finding a picture on the way to shooting another one. In this case I was flying to shoot a lake in  Ambae, a volcano north of Ambrym. The sun had just come up when we crossed the island and this almost accidental photograph is the result. In fact I wasn't even looking for the photograph today, I just stumbled upon it once again while searching my RAW file data base for another image. 

It is a good thing that I shot this situation as Ambae was socked in with clouds and I didn't get a single good frame. 

-Stephen Alvarez

Brigitte Lacombe's photos on NPR's The Picture Show

Clair O'Neil writes up Brigitte Lacombe's new Book Anima / Persona on The Picture Show.

daybreak

Here is a photo I took of a friend who was visiting for the 4th. It was a rainy Sunday morning, the sun just beginning to rise, and the light started spilling through the windows into the room. I silently pulled out my camera and snapped this photo while my friend, along with the rest of the world, soundly slept.

Lexi Namer

Photography Grants and Fellowships

Here is a list of fellowships and grants for the 2009-2010 year. The grants are mostly for photography but many of them are also for other areas in the arts, including performance and literary. The ones with "deadline not updated" have already passed for the 2009 year but will be available again in 2010. Enjoy and good luck!
-Lexi Namer

Getty Images
fellowship site  past winners
Grant for Editorial Photography- [Deadline May 15, November 15]
        5 grants for professional photojournalists: $20,000 plus support
        4 student grants: $5000 a year
Grants for Good- [Deadline April 15]
        2 grants to create imagery for non-profit of choice: $15,000

New York Foundation for the Arts
fellowship site  past winners
Artist Fellowship- [Deadline October. Applications available in late summer]
        $7000 to artists living in NY state within 16 disciplines

Open Society Institute
fellowship site   past winners
Open Society Fellowship- [Deadline: September 15]
        fellowships from $60,000-$100,000 for journalists, activists, academics, and practitioners in a variety of fields

Pew Foundation for the Arts
fellowship site   past fellows

Pew Fellowships for the Arts- [Deadline: December 5]
        fellowships of $60,000 for artists working in a wide variety of performing, literary, and artistic fields

Burn Magazine
fellowship site
Emerging Photographers Grant- [deadline not updated]
        $10,000 grant to emerging photographer with strong body of work

John Gutmann Photography
fellowship site   past fellows
Photography Fellowship Award
        8 yearly recipients receive $5000-$10000 for promise shown in emerging talent

Aaron Siskind Foundation
fellowship site   past winners
IFP Grant- [deadline not updated]
        grants up to $7000 for artist working in still photography and photo based art

Alicia Patterson Foundation
fellowship site   past winners
Journalism Fellowship- [deadline October 1]
        grants from $20,000-$40,000 awarded to full time journalists

Center for Documentary Studies
fellowship site   past winners
Lange-Taylor Prize- [deadline not updated]
        $20,000 given to writer or photographer at beginning stages of documentary project

Worldstudio Inc
fellowship site   past winners
AIGA Scholarships- [deadline: April 2010]
        awards from $2000 to young minority or economically disadvantaged artists

The Aftermath Project
fellowship site   past winners
Aftermath Grant- [application: August 2010]
        grants up to $25,000 for photographers covering aftermath of conflict or war

The Alexia Foundation
fellowship site    past winners
Professional Grant- [Deadline: January 12]
        $15,000 grant to professional photographer for production of project
Student Grant- [Deadline: February 1]
        grant winner received full tuition to study photojournalism and $1000 for story production

Warhol Foundation
fellowship site   past winners
Grant for Visual Arts- [Deadline: March 1 and September 1]
        Grants are made on a project basis to curatorial programs at museums, artists' organizations, and other cultural institutions

Bush Foundation
fellowship site   past winners
Artist Fellowship- [deadline not updated]
        up to 15 artist receive grant yearly of $48,000 to deepen and advance their work over course of one or two years

John Smith Guggenheim Foundation
fellowship site   past winners
US Fellowship- [deadline not updated]
        grant up to $43,000 awarded yearly for advanced professionals or performers to have creative freedom for 6 months to a year

Fire Angel, Sewanee

Our friend Kate visited this past weekend, here she is as a fire angel, its like a snow angel but different...

-Stephen Alvarez

Back to Work

Washington, DC June 17, 2009

A frame from the cab on the way to DCA a couple of weeks ago. This picture seemed appropriate today, after a fantastic weekend it is time to get back to work. It is tough to face the reality of my Madagascar expenses today, but they are a mess, and late, so I have to go back to making heads or tails of them...

Hope other's weeks are looking better than mine.

-Stephen Alvarez

Rain Dance, 4th of July

My favorite Holiday. 

-Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, Tennessee

Canon 5D Mark II, 24mm 1.4 

Nima Ha, Guatemala

A Maya petition at Nima Ha. The brujo says prayers to the spirits who dwell in the cave and asks their protection. 

This image is from an old (2004 here) story on the the Maya Underworld. The pictures have sat in a box until this summer. Now my intern is scanning the images, giving them new life. I had long thought, and been encouraged to put the Maya Underworld images together in a more extensive form than the National Geographic story. What that will be, a book or a long web piece I don't know. I do know that I should get it done before the world ends in 2012.

Enjoy the holiday weekend.

-Stephen Alvarez

Jack Shafer on the Death of Journalism

Jack Schafer quotes journalist Mark Sullivan's memoirs Education of an American (on Slate here) to point out that journalism has always been in a state of decline. In 1938 the veteran newsman Sullivan laments the passing of the American newspaper as ad dollars flowed from print to radio.

Far from being depressed Sullivan says

I felt as if I were like one of those old monks, the scriveners, who continued to copy by hand long after printing had been invented. To young writers looking forward the lesson is as plain, and even more important, than to old writers looking backward. Learn the art of writing, of course, but learn also the art of the motion picture, and of the radio.

Sound familiar? Good advice for today's journalists.

Schafer is interesting on this subject, in a previous article he says (here)

If newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters don't produce spectacular news coverage no blogger can match, they have no right to survive.

Personally I couldn't agree more.

Last year after Look 3 I came home more excited about telling stories than I had ever been but also more depressed about making a living as a journalist. The barriers of entry to story telling are now ridiculously low and there are many more stories being told. But how any of us -including Jack Schafer- will make a living? No idea

-Stephen Alvarez

Swimming, Yucatan Mexico

Underwater swimmers in Bolonchojol Cenote near Chunkusan, Yucatan, Mexico.

-Stephen Alvarez