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Washington, D.C.--May 14--Recently, National Geographic magazine (NGM) announced Jonas Bendiksen as the winner of its second annual $50,000 photography grant.
NGM has awarded the grant to Bendiksen, to support his work on global urbanization. Bendiksen proposed to document the population explosion in Chongqing, a city in western China that is considered the fastest growing metropolis in the world.
Check out a slide show of these images on the NG Website at: ngm.nationalgeographic.com/photo-grant/jonas-bendiksen-photography.
Born in Norway in 1977, Jonas Bendiksen began his photography career as a 19-year-old intern in the London office of Magnum Photos. After a time, he decided to leave office life and travel through Russia to pursue his own work as a photojournalist.
In the years he spent there, Bendiksen photographed stories from the fringes of the former Soviet Union, culminating in his 2006 book Satellites.
Since leaving Russia, Bendiksen has worked on numerous articles throughout the world, including his ongoing project about the world's slums. His coverage on "Dharavi: Mumbai's Shadow City," is featured in the May 2007 issue of National Geographic.
Bendiksen has received numerous awards, including a National Magazine Award for his story "Kibera," which was featured in the Paris Review. Other distinctions include a Freedom of Expression Foundation fellowship, second place in the Daily Life Stories category for World Press Photo, the 2003 Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, and first prize in the Pictures of the Year International competition.
In addition to National Geographic and Paris Review, Bendiksen's editorial clients include GEO, Newsweek, Telegraph Magazine, the Sunday Times magazine, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He lives in New York with his wife and son.
For more information visit www.jonasbendiksen.com.
National Geographic magazine announced its photography grant in 2006 as a means of supporting worthy documentary photography. Grantees are chosen based on the merit of their portfolio and proposal, regardless of whether the project would be published by National Geographic. In addition to financial support, the grantee will have full access to the facilities provided to the magazine's regular contributing photographers as well as the assistance of a picture editor.
The grant was awarded for the first time in 2007 to Eugene Richards, for a project to document those profoundly affected by the conflict in Iraq.
Judges for the 2008 grant included Elisabeth Biondi, visuals editor for The New Yorker, Andy Grundberg, administrative chair of photography at the Corcoran School of Art & Design, and Gail Fisher, senior photo editor at National Geographic magazine.
