W. Eugene Smith Fund Announces Judges for 2025 Grants in Humanistic Photography

Award-Winning Curators, Picture Editors, Educators, and Documentary Photographers Highlight Renowned List of International Judges for 2025 Entries

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, September 17, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The W. Eugene Smith Fund has announced the judges for its 2025 annual grants including the W. Eugene Smith grant, W. Eugene Smith Student grant, and Howard Chapnick grant. This year’s esteemed adjudication panel for the 46th annual W. Eugene Smith grants include, Clinton Cargill, News Director, Photo, at the New York Times; Sabiha Çimen, 2020 Eugene Smith grant recipient and member of Magnum Photos; and Arianna Rinaldo, independent curator and photo editor.

Judges for the 8th annual W. Eugene Smith Student grant include Chilean photographer, Andrés Figueroa; Ingrid Masondo, Curator of Photography and New Media at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town; and Søren Pagter, Head of the Department of Photojournalism at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Denmark.

The 28th annual Howard Chapnick grant will be adjudicated by photographer, media artist, and researcher, Dr. Ingrid Pollard; Jeff L. Rosenheim, author and curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and photographer Tanzim Wahab, Vice Principal of Pathshala South Asian Media Institute and a curator of Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography in Bangladesh.

This year’s adjudication process will be managed and directed by Eugene Smith Fund board members Dr. Roger Hartl (Eugene Smith grant), Angela Jimu (Eugene Smith Student grant), and Scott Thode (Howard Chapnick grant).

The deadline for submitting applications for all grants is October 5, 2025 (11:59 EDT).

“We are honored to have such a talented and diverse group of industry professionals to adjudicate this year’s grant entries” said Scott Thode, president of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. “These judges represent a global perspective and a vision of excellence which will assist them in determining this year’s grant recipients from hundreds of international entries,” Mr. Thode added.

Thanks to the continued support from the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Earth Vision Institute, the John and Anne Duffy Foundation, PhotoWings, and the Joy of Giving Something, the Smith Fund has been able to provide financial support to documentary photographers around the world. The Smith Fund relies entirely on foundation grants, corporate contributions, and individual donations to fund its grants and fellowships.

2025 W. Eugene Smith Grant Judges
Clinton Cargill is the News Director for The New York Times Photo Department, overseeing breaking news and live coverage operations and managing visual presentations across The Times digital surfaces throughout the 24-hour news cycle. Clinton began his career at The Times working as a photo editor at the Magazine for a decade and later became director of photography at Bloomberg Businessweek and visuals director at Vanity Fair. He rejoined the Times in 2019.

Sabiha Çimen is a self-taught photographer whose work explores women, Islamic culture, portraiture, and still life through deeply self-reflective projects. In 2018 she received the PHmuseum Women Photographers Grant; awarded the W. Eugene Smith Grant in 2020, followed by distinctions such as the Light Work Artist Residency, the Canon Female Photojournalist Grant, and World Press Photo Awards.

Arianna Rinaldo is an independent curator, photography consultant, and freelance photo editor. From 2012 to 2021 she was the artistic director of Cortona On The Move, an international photo festival in Italy. Since 2016, she has been the photography curator at PhEST, a festival of contemporary photography and arts in Puglia.

2025 W. Eugene Smith Student Grant Judges
Andrés Figueroa was born in Santiago (Chile) in 1974 and graduated from the Escuela de Foto Arte de Chile in Santiago in 1996. His work focuses on people and their relations with cultural heritage, social justice, and community organizations.

Ingrid Masondo is a photographer, archivist, curator, and researcher whose practice in the heritage sector spans more than two decades in a variety of capacities including roles in artist and project management, research, editing, curatorial and archival work. She has worked at UWC-Robben Island Mayibuye Archives, Chimurenga Chronic, and the renowned Market Photo Workshop.

Søren Pagter is the head of the world-renowned photojournalism education department at the Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX). Since 1998, he has taught and educated Danish and international photojournalists both at the school in Aarhus and at various workshops around the world. In 2018, he published the textbook, “The Essential Image,” which defines the genres and methods within documentary photography.

2025 Howard Chapnick Grant Judges
Jeff L. Rosenheim is the Joyce F. Menschel Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now in his 37th year at the museum, he is the steward of the Walker Evans Archive, the Diane Arbus Archive, and the James Van Der Zee Archive. Rosenheim has curated many traveling exhibitions including: Photography and the American Civil War (2013); diane arbus: in the beginning (2016); Irving Penn: Centennial (2017); among others. His most recent show, The New Art: American Photography, 1839-1910, closed in July 2025.

Dr Ingrid Pollard, MBE, comes from a community arts background and trained in print making, film and photography. Pollard is a multi-media artist, photographer, researcher and lecturer. She has developed a social practice concerned with representation, history and landscape with reference to race, and the materiality of lens-based media.

Pollard has exhibited at Tate Britain, Victoria & Albert Museum and the Photographers Gallery London, NGBK, Berlin, the Caribbean Cultural Centre, New York, the National Art Gallery of Barbados. She is the recipient of numerous awards.

Tanzim Wahab is a curator, researcher and lecturer. He is the festival director of Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography. Wahab, alongside Munem Wasif, has published two editions of Kamra – a comprehensive publication in Bengali, setting ideas and debates of photographic history and theories.

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, Inc. is a non-profit corporation qualified as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is supported by generous contributions from The Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Earth Vision Institute, the John and Anne Duffy Foundation, and PhotoWings. Additional support is provided by the International Center of Photography, and Synergy Communications.

Louis Desiderio
Synergy Communications, Inc.
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