Howard Chapnick Grant 2021

In 1996 the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund established the Howard Chapnick Grant, to encourage and support leadership in fields ancillary to photojournalism, such as editing, research, education and management. The Grant was established to honor the memory of Howard Chapnick, and to acknowledge the value of his enormous contribution to photography. As president of the photo agency Black Star, Chapnick was responsible for making and maintaining a network of photographers around the world. He mentored numerous photographers and taught annual workshops at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. In 1994 he published the book Truth Needs No Ally: Inside Photojournalism, summarizing his decades of experience in the field working with photojournalists. Chapnick was a principal founder of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. After his death in 1996, the Fund established a grant in his memory to encourage and support leadership in fields related to photojournalism.

The annual $10,000 grant may be used to finance any of a range of qualified undertakings, which might include a program of further education, research, a special long-term sabbatical project, or an internship to work with a noteworthy group or individual. According to the Fund's Board of Trustees, special consideration will be given to individuals, initiatives, organizations or projects that promote social change and/or serve significant concerns of photojournalism. This grant is not intended to be used for the creation or production of photographs, which will continue to be funded by the Smith Fund Grant and the Smith Fund Student Grant. The jurors for the Howard Chapnick Grant will be drawn from members of the Board of Trustees of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund in Humanistic Photography.

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, a not-for-profit corporation qualified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, independently administers this grant which provides the selected 2020 recipient with a grant of $10,000. The award will be presented in a ceremony held in New York City in October, 2021.