The 2008 Alexia Competition Winners

11-year-old child bride with groom in Damarda, Afghanistan.
Stephanie Sinclair
$15,000 professional grant winner.
Read her proposal.
View her portfolio.

Stephanie Sinclair is a VII Network contributing photographer since January, 2008, based in Beirut, Lebanon. From July, 2003 to December, 2007, she worked for Corbis in Iraq and Lebanon. From 1998 to 2003, she was a staff photographer at the Chicago Tribune.

She graduated from the University of Florida in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communications with an outside concentration in Fine Art Photography. In the summer of 1993 she studied French at the University of Paris - La Sorbonne. During her time in school, she had internships at the Miami Herald, Arizona Republic, St. Petersburg Times, and the Detroit Free-Press.

Since 1999 she has been the publisher of Photobetty.com, the award-winning online publication for women in photography.

Some awards include:

  • 2007 UNICEF Photo of the Year
  • 2007 World Press Photo Third Place for coverage of the 2006 war in Lebanon
  • 2006 Selected for World Press Photo’s 13th Joop Swart Masterclass
  • 2004 Fifty Crows International Fund for Documentary Photography's Central Asia and Caucasus Grant
  • 2003 World Press Photo First Place Contemporary Issues Single for a story on self-immolation in Afghanistan
  • 2001 Pulitzer Prize for “Gateway to Gridlock,” awarded to Chicago Tribune staff for a series on the American air travel system. One of Stephanie’s photographs was the lead image in the second day of the three part series.

There were 242 applications that the judges narrowed down to five, and then selected Sinclair’s proposal and portfolio as the best of the best. The other four finalists, in no particular order are freelance photographer Mary Beth Meehan. She was a staff photographer at the Providence Journal from 1995-2001; Krisanne Johnson, freelance photographer based in New York. She was White House staff photographer in 2005 and a U. S. News and World Report intern in 2004; Teru Kuwayama, freelance photographer based in New York. He won the professional Alexia grant in 1999. He is a co-founder of Lighstalkers; and Aaron Huey, freelance photographer based in Seattle. In 2002 Huey walked 3,349 miles across America with his dog which resulted in his first published work. He now shoots for National Geographic, Harper’s, Smithsonian, Time, Newsweek, etc. Photo District News named him one of the top 30 emerging photographers in the world in 2007.

The judging was done at Syracuse University on Feb. 23, 2008. The judges were Brian Storm, president, MediaStorm, New York; Sally Stapleton, assistant managing editor for photography, graphics, and online for The Day in New London, CT; and Larry Nylund, deputy managing editor for presentation at The Journal News, White Plains, NY.


Dad's ashes in a box with favorite fighting rooster mounted on top.
Matt Eich
First place student scholarship winner.
Read his proposal.
View his portfolio.

Matt Eich is a senior photojournalism student at Ohio University. He wins a full-tuition scholarship to study photojournalism at the Syracuse University London Centre in Fall, 2008, plus a $1,000 grant to produce his picture story.

Eich interned at the Portland Oregonian in the summer of 2007 and at the Orange County Register in the spring of 2006. He was College Photographer of the Year in 2006 and was named one of 15 emerging photographers by American Photo Magazine in August, 2007. He was selected to attend the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2005 and won a $10,000 Nikon Scholarship for best student work.

Second place student winner Justin Maxon will graduate from San Francisco State University with a photojournalism degree in spring, 2009. The second place award is a half-tuition scholarship to study photojournalism at the Syracuse University London Centre in Fall, 2008, and a grant of $500. He interned at the Marin Scope in spring, 2006. He will intern at the AP in Philadelphia, PA, next summer. He was runner up College Photographer of the Year in 2007 and attended the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2007. Maxon won first place in World Press Photo Daily Life category in 2008.

Award of Excellence winners are Robert Sukrachand, a senior at the Tisch School at New York University; Dinara Sagatova is in the interactive multimedia Master's program at Ohio University; and Aaron Borton is a senior photojournalism student at Western Kentucky University.

Sukrachand attended the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2007. Sagatova is a teaching assistant in Publication Design at Ohio University. Borton was an intern at the Hays Kansas Daily News and has attended the Mountain Workshop twice.

Each Award of Excellence winner receives a $1600 scholarship that pays part of tuition, fees and living expenses to study photojournalism in London in the fall semester at the Syracuse University London Centre and a $500 cash grant to help produce their proposed stories.

52 students from more than 35 universities and one high school applied to the competition this year.

The judging was done at Syracuse University on Feb. 23, 2008. The judges were Brian Storm, president, MediaStorm, New York; Sally Stapleton, assistant managing editor for photography, graphics, and online for The Day in New London, CT; and Larry Nylund, deputy managing editor for presentation at The Journal News, White Plains, NY.

“The photographs in Eyes on the World
raise our consciousness from the soul up”

The Alexia Foundation Photojournalism Exhibition “Eyes on the World” was displayed at the Portage Michigan Library from March 10-April 15.

At the official show opening on April 6, Aphrodite Tsairis talked about how she and her husband, Dr. Peter Tsairis, created the Foundation. She then introduced Justin Yurkanin, 2002 student grant winner, who showed work from his Alexia Foundation funded story in Sudan, and spoke about that and his more recent work he did in the Philippines for his newspaper, The Daytona Beach News Journal.

Justin Yurkanin and his family.
Justin Yurkanin, far left, poses for a family group shot at the opening of “Eyes on the World” at the Portage District Library in Portage Michigan. His parents, aunt and brothers attended the event. Marsha Meyer, Portage District Library Program & Events Coordinator, organized the event. After the end of the show she wrote:

Dear Peter and Aphrodite,

With art exhibits it is difficult to measure the impact on the viewer. Powerful art can stay with us trickling its intensity long after the show comes down. The photographs in Eyes on the World raise our consciousness from the soul up. They make us stop and see each image through the sensitivity of the photographer. As I have lived this last month with these remarkable images, they have become people, individuals, who represent strength and an amazing tenacity for survival in a stark, deadly landscape. This exhibit hits home our connection with fellow humans around the globe -- people with vision, hopes, insight, senses of humor and a veracious desire to survive and provide for their families even in the harshest of environments. Thank you for jolting us into awareness of important global issues on a human scale. Because of the Alexia Foundation and thoughtful, creative artists like Justin we have a better feeling for the people who are actually living through the many environmental social and political problems facing us all as global inhabitants.

Gratefully,
Marsha Meyer
Program & Events Coordinator
Portage District Library

Eyes on the World “Eyes on the World”
book now available
with credit card

The Alexia Foundation's "Eyes on the World" book displays the work of 18 past Alexia grant winners and presents work that has been exhibited at the United Nations building in New York, at the Pingyao, China, International Photography Festival, and at the UN Information Centre in Tokyo.

The $40 book is available with credit card at PayPal, or by email request to info@alexiafoundation.org or at the Syracuse University Bookstore. You can preview a segment of the book here.