photoxelsFrench photographer William Daniels (Panos Pictures) has been awarded the fourth annual Tim Hetherington Grant.
The grant is an annual 20,000 euro (24927.00 US Dollar at the current exchange rate) grant awarded to a visual journalist to finalize an ongoing project on a human rights theme.
Daniels has been photographing with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR.
The ‘Roots of Africa’s Unholy War: Central African Republic’ project, which Daniels has been photographing with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR, has been documenting the bloody conflict in the country which, during 2013, was sparked when rebels from the Séléka seized power, unleashing nine months of anarchy. Daniels undertook five trips to the country during this period to understand and cover the unfolding drama and the roots of the conflict, which have been under-reported by the media. He now wishes to be able to switch perspectives to document the unseen side of the conflict and to provide an understanding of the country through compassionate imagery.
NEWS RELEASE
December 2014
Tim Hetherington Grant: 2014 winner
World Press Photo and Human Rights Watch have announced that French photographer William Daniels (Panos Pictures) has been awarded the fourth annual Tim Hetherington Grant to help him to continue his project ‘Roots of Africa’s Unholy War: Central African Republic’.
The annual grant of €20,000 was set up in 2011 to celebrate the legacy of the photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya in 2011, and is designed to support a photographer in completing an existing project on a human rights theme. William Daniels’ project was chosen by a selection committee from among 198 applications.
Speaking on the day of the announcement, William Daniels told CPN: “I’m very, very excited. The name of Tim Hetherington is something important – I’ve been a very big fan of his work so I feel very, very, very honoured. I am also very happy that the jury decided to fund a project about the Central African Republic, which is a place about which we need more coverage.”
The ‘Roots of Africa’s Unholy War: Central African Republic’ project, which Daniels has been photographing with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR, has been documenting the bloody conflict in the country which, during 2013, was sparked when rebels from the Séléka seized power, unleashing nine months of anarchy. Daniels undertook five trips to the country during this period to understand and cover the unfolding drama and the roots of the conflict, which have been under-reported by the media. He now wishes to be able to switch perspectives to document the unseen side of the conflict and to provide an understanding of the country through compassionate imagery.
Of his future plans for the project Daniels told CPN: “I’m in the Central African Republic right now and I will go to Paris and then might come back in January or February. Over the next year I will come back here several times; I’m not sure exactly when and where I will shoot. I want to work on it over the next year and then after that maybe we will have an exhibition in New York, maybe with a long fresco of pictures; I did a similar exhibition in Paris about the Central African Republic on the Seine Quays. I propose to do something similar in New York in early 2016.”
The grant was judged in New York, USA, on Human Rights Day (10 December 2014) with the results announced the following day. The judging panel consisted of: Carroll Bogert, Deputy Executive Director for External Relations at Human Rights Watch; Inigo Gilmore, an independent journalist and filmmaker; Christopher Morris, a photographer at VII Photo Agency; Maarten Koets, Acting Managing Director of World Press Photo and Amy Yenkin, Director of the Open Society Documentary Photography Project. David Griffin, owner of DGriffinStudio, served as the secretary during the selection.
Judging panel member Christopher Morris commented: “When I see William Daniels’ work, I see a true master photographer. Hopefully this grant will give Daniels the opportunity to carry out a project that needs to be shown. Tim [Hetherington] would be proud of this project. It is shot in a way the human eye sees. It is very straightforward and clear photography – of a story that is crying out for this kind of vision.”
World Press Photo Acting Managing Director Maarten Koets said: “I appreciate William Daniels’ sense of going behind the headlines of what happened in CAR. He is doing what Tim [Hetherington] did: he continues to cover an issue when other media have moved on. I love the ambition that speaks out of this project.”
About the Tim Hetherington Grant
The Tim Hetherington Grant is a joint initiative of Human Rights Watch and World Press Photo, and was created in honour of the photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Misrata, Libya, in April 2011. Hetherington was the winner of World Press Photo of the Year 2008. The previous recipients were Stephen Ferry in 2011, Fernando Moleres in 2012 and Olivier Jobard in 2013.
• World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon.
