Award of Excellence: Darya Aslanyan
This premier category is open to all photographers -- independent, agency, wire service, or newspaper photographers.
The spirit of this category is to honor a photographer who documents their own community. At least 60% of their portfolio must consist of local or regional coverage from their home or organization’s primary geographic market.
Only one national or international story is allowed. A portfolio must include at least two narrative picture stories (5 or more images).
Co-Dependence
I grew up in a family with alcohol addiction. By all the rules of this disease, I had to become addicted or choose a dependent partner. The second option happened in my life. For 15 years, my husband had been using drugs, and I was sinking deeper into the pit of despair. One day, I joined a mutual aid group, began to receive information, and found out that I also needed help, not only from my husband. 3 years of therapy helped me. I became stronger and was able to send my husband for treatment. He has been in remission for 3 years now. I decided to make portraits of codependents in the reflections in the mirror held by addicts and let them talk about their pain. Although codependency is not yet qualified as an independent disease, addictologists recognize that it is necessary to treat not only the dependent but also his relatives because the character defects of addicts and codependents reflect each other. Not all addicts were able to participate in the shooting: someone died of this disease, some were in prison, and some in the hospital. But every time I took pictures of my characters, I saw myself in the reflections in the mirror
“Whoever Causes One of These Little Ones to Sin”
After the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church became one of the instruments of state propaganda. In the summer of 2023, I attended the field training camp of the military-patriotic club, organized by the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the mornings and evenings, children and teachers read prayers there, go to the temple, conduct training with deactivated weapons, learn combat tactics and drone control, and assist the wounded on the battlefield. Teachers repeat the version of state propaganda to boys and girls from 8 to 18 years old, justifying Russia's aggression. They explain that patriotism is a willingness to defend your homeland, supporting this discussion with quotations from the Gospel. Some teenagers aren't agree with them and ask teachers difficult questions. And although teenagers consider it as a game, as a mom of three, I know that children will play the games that adults will offer them. At the end of the training camp, I asked the children: “What is patriotism if there is no need to prepare for war?” They were confused. It was obvious that they hadn't thought about it. And then they began to reflect, saying that building a road, digging a well in the village, or being a volunteer is also patriotism.
Guardians of River
Alexander grew up in the Orenburg region on the banks of the Bolshoy Kinel River in the hungry postwar years (World War II). Then, the river fed the locals: in summer, there was a bucket on the shore with which each resident could catch crayfish and cook them right there on the shore. When he grew up, he got a job at a local oil company. He had to export oil, and the places of oil breakouts had to be filled up with garbage in a hurry. It was a proven "technology". It's been 35 years. All this time, Alexander thought that it was wrong to use the land so barbarously, but he tried to drive these thoughts away from himself: he had to feed his family. But finally, he resigned. Former colleagues gave him an old boat, he began to sail on it, collect garbage, free the shores from invasive maple and plant trees. He gathered a team of like-minded people: Ruslan, 25, who works as an IT technician, Timofey, an eighth-grader, and Vera, a schoolteacher. Together they built a house on the water, where they give lectures on eco-activism to residents. Also, they set up a network on it, with the help of which garbage is detained. The tributaries of the river have been drying up in recent years. Because of the garbage, springs are clogged. So, in 2021, the inflow of Turkhanovka dried up completely. Then the eco—activists gathered and cleaned the river - the water returned. Alexander hopes that residents will understand how important it is to keep rivers clean
Difficult Road
Residents of the remote Siberian village of Antsiferovo in the Krasnoyarsk region are unable to get to the hospital or to buy groceries for months due to off-road driving. Teachers get to the children at the local school occasionally. In this village, there is an old St. Nicholas church, which does not have a stove, and in winter and autumn, it freezes through. Father Mikhail Goncharov was appointed to serve in this church. He writes letters to the district administration, tries to get officials to build a road, and invents the ways to rid local residents of drunkenness. On his old boat, he sails along the river to neighboring villages to serve there. Several times, he spent the night in the open air when the boat or all-terrain vehicle on which he carries residents broke down. There is poor communication in this region, so if transport breaks down, you only need to wait for someone to pass by, so tragedies happen when residents freeze to death in the forest due to off-road conditions. At the same time, rural priests do not receive salaries. A jar of pickles from the locals is his entire salary. Some residents say that Father Mikhail is "shaming the village" by trying to get the officials to build a road. They do not want to bring the problems of the village to the public and do not believe that anything can change. But Father Mikhail believes.
