Isadora Kosofsky (US) is the recipient of the 2012 IM Award for her proposal Selections from “The Three” and “This Existence.” The finalists for the IM Award were Maria Pleshkova (RU), for her project Days of War: A Pillowbook, and Carlotta Zarattini (IT), for her project The White Building.

Each June, the winner of the Inge Morath Award is selected by the full membership of Magnum Photos, and the Director of the Inge Morath Foundation, during the annual Magnum meeting. The Award of $5,000 is given by the Magnum Foundation, in cooperation with the IM Foundation, to a female photographer under the age of 30, to support the completion of a long-term documentary project.

Kosofsky is 18 years old, and began her work with the elderly after the death of her grandmother, who raised her. “Grief following my grandmother’s death led me to document the lives and relationships of the elderly, particularly women, in Los Angeles over the course of four years,” Kosofsky writes. She will use the Award to continue that project, and also to expand it. “I seek to further develop my documentation, and The Inge Morath Award will permit me to do so. I wish to not only expand my existing narratives but also to document the elderly in France, a different cultural setting.”

Isadora Kosofsky’s winning proposal will be presented in full in IM Magazine, the web-based publication of the Inge Morath Foundation, in September, 2012, followed by the proposals of the finalists, Maria Pleshkova and Carlotta Zarattini. Kosofsky’s project “The Three” was featured in Le Monde in June 2012, and on TIME Lightbox in May. She was nominated in 2010 for the prize for “Single Editorial Image,” and in 2009 for “Social Documentary Essay,” at the 2010 New York Photo Festival. Kosofsky also founded the Photo-dialectic therapy: Photographic Documentation Project, at the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House, to engage chronically ill children and their families through photography. The program was in operation from 2008 – 10.

(Source: ingemorath.org)

emergencyfund:

Magnum Foundation’s 2012 Winter Newsletter with updates from all of Magnum Foundation’s programs.

2011 Inge Morath Grantee, Zhe Chen, from her project Bees.

The 2012 Inge Morath Award is now open for submissions through April 30th. The annual award of $5,000 is awarded by the MF to a female photographer under the age of 30, to support the completion of a long-term documentary project. One award winner and up to two finalists are selected by a jury composed of Magnum photographers and the director of the Inge Morath Foundation.

To apply or read more information about the award please click here.

A few images from 2011 Magnum Foundation Emerging Photographer Award winner Irina Werning. View more of Irina’s work at the BURN Blog.