Six photographers are in the running for a new photography award that has been introduced by Annie Leibovitz in collaboration with philanthropist and photographer Lisa Saltzman. They are vying for the Saltzman-Leibovitz Photography Prize, which will award $20,000 in total to the creatives, who are based in Ukraine, the U.S., Nigeria, Romania, the Netherlands and France.
The award-winning Saltzman, who also works as a film producer, started the Saltzman Family Foundation in 2020 to honor her late parents, Muriel and Ralph Saltzman, who were art collectors, patrons and philanthropists.
Elena Kalinichenko of Ukraine; Ka’Vozia Glynn of the U.S.; Praise Hassan of Nigeria; Toma Hurduc of Romania; Trâm Nguyễn Quang of the Netherlands, and Zélie Hallosserie of France have been short-listed. They already know Leibovitz beyond her fame. Each up-and-coming sharpshooter had a mentorship with her, when she was Ikea’s artist in residence. The winner of the top prize will walk away with a $10,000 award, whereas the second through six-place finalists will each be handed $5,000, $2,000, $1,500, $1,000 and $500, respectively.
Their talents are being critiqued by Drew Sawyer, photography curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art; the curator and scholar Isolde Brielmaier; freelance photo editor Kira Pollack; Hauser & Wirth’s associate director Mary Grace Reeder, and Condé Nast’s head creative director Raul Martinez.
Despite having lived and worked abroad, Kalinichenko chose to stay in Kyiv during the war, working in a corporate job and pursuing photography on the side. Last year she gave up the office job and has focused her camera on the frontlines, during the war between Ukraine and Russia, as well as cultural traditions like carol singers.
By her own account, Glynn, a 23-year-old who divides her time between Georgia and Florida, is curious about “how photography and other image-making can bring much needed changes in the world for everyday people.”
The Lagos-based Hassan is a multidisciplinary artist, poet and graphic designer whose portfolio includes self-portraits that reflect her travails from depression to healing, as well as work that shows the power of growth and self-discovery. Adept at documentary photography, Hurdoc teaches at the Centrul de Resurse in Fotografie in his home city of Bucharest, and has shown his work in Romania, France and Norway.
Work from Toma Hurdoc of Bucharest.
Photo by Toma Hurdoc/Courtesy
As a cognitive neuroscience student in Amsterdam, Quang dives into themes of memory and nostalgia, as evidenced by her “Life at Home” project. Using Belgium as her base, the French-born Hallosserie has been chronicling the lives of migrants in northern France, who are trying to relocate to the U.K. In what the displaced call “the Game,” they are trying to cross the English Channel from Calais.
Trâm Nguyễn Quang is a cognitive neuroscience student and a photographer.
Photo by Trâm Nguyễn Quang/Courtesy
Meanwhile, Leibovitz’s 50-year career will be in the spotlight this spring, when the Mint Museum unveils “Annie. Leibovitz/Work,” which will include celebrity portraits and some images that have seldom been shown publicly before. The show will run in the Charlotte, N.C., museum from April 27 through Aug. 31.
