IAFOR Documentary Photography Award | Winners 2019

The Grand Prize Winner of this year’s IAFOR Documentary Photography Award is Emilienne Malfatto, who wins the Award for her project “Al-Banaat” (“the girls” in Arabic), an “intimate journey through the world of two little sisters in Iraq”. Emilienne is a freelance photojournalist whose work focuses on post-conflict and social issues, mostly in Iraq.

The judges and organisers congratulate Emilienne on this achievement. Emilienne will now receive the following as part of her Grand Prize package:

Congratulations also to Maximilian Mann (Second Place) from Germany, Rafael Heygster (Third Place) also from Germany, Alba Diaz (Honourable Mention) from Spain, and Mohammed Zaanoun (Honourable Mention) from Palestine, who will also receive prizes from MediaStorm and The International Academic Forum (IAFOR).

This year’s IAFOR Documentary Photography Award received over 120 submissions from more than 30 countries – offering the judges a wide range of international perspectives on the theme of “Embracing the Future”. Commenting on this year’s winning entries, Founding Judge Dr Paul Lowe (VII Photo Agency/University of the Arts London) said the following:

Yet again we were overwhelmed with the quality of the entries, with a wide range of styles and approaches to important and meaningful subjects and issues. The judges awarded the first prize to Emilienne Malfatto, impressed by her strong proposal and the intimacy of her portrait of the relationship of two sisters growing up in Iraq. Second place went to Maximilian Mann for his lyrically engaging pictures of the Iranian desert, whilst third place went to Rafael Heygster for his intelligent interpretation with the way that conflict now pervades everyday life. Honourable mentions went to Alba Diaz whose marriage of concept and technical execution was exceptionally well handled in her work on the historical memory of the terrors of the Franco regime in Spain, and to Mohammed Zaanoun for his exceptional coverage of the protests of Palestinians against the Israeli occupation.

Special thanks to our judges, Dr Paul Lowe, Poulomi Basu and Jenny Matthews, and our supporters The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), World Press Photo, University of the Arts London and MediaStorm.


Winners 2019

Grand Prize

Al-Banaat
Emilienne Malfatto
France


Second Place

Fading Flamingos
Maximilian Mann
Germany


Third Place

“I died 22 times”
Rafael Heygster
Germany


Honourable Mention

‘1936 | 2020’
Alba Diaz
Spain


Honourable Mention

Mohammed Zaanoun
Palestine

For more information about the Award, including 2020 sponsorship opportunities, please contact Thaddeus Pope, Creative Director, IAFOR Documentary Photography Award (tpope@iafor.org).

Avatar photo

Posted by Thaddeus Pope

Thaddeus Pope is the Director of Visual Communications for The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) and the Creative Director of the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award.