FotoVisura.com is an online self-publishing platform and a social network to collect and share life and creative work through images, video, audio, and text. One of its attributes is The FotoVisura Grant, which aims to support personal photography projects to encourage the production and development of photography outside the commercial realm. The Grant is eligible for projects not initiated by an assignment or commission.

The 2010 FotoVisura Grant presented two prizes: The FotoVisura Award for Most Outstanding Personal Project and The Spotlight Award for Most Outstanding Student Project. The jurors for The FotoVisura Award were Larry Fink/ Photographer, BARD Professor of Photography, James Estrin/ Co-Editor, New York Times Lens Blog and Senior Staff Photographer, Lauren Heinz/ Editor, Foto 8 and 8 Magazine, and Adriana Teresa/ Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Visura Magazine. The jurors for The Spotlight Award were Henry Horenstein/ Photographer, Author, RISD Professor of Photography, Larry Fink, Claire O’Neill/ Editor/NPR’s Picture Show blog, and Lauren Schneiderman/ Editor, Visura Spotlight.
Adriana Teresa

FOTOVISURA AWARD

When the Spirit Moves by Justin Maxon
People have said that since America elected its first black president, we have transitioned into a post-racial society. They assume if he can succeed, then all people of color can do the same. This is not reality for those living in Chester, Pennsylvania. People there grew up in an environment where forces everywhere are against them. Gravity seems to be stronger there and less forgiving. It is a place where pollution alters cognitive development, violence and crime are commonplace, poverty is oppressive, and jobs are virtually non existent.
Born in 1983, american photographer Justin Maxon has won numerous awards for his photography, from competitions like World Press Photo, Unicef Images of the Year, POYi, and NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, amongst others. Justin is mainly interested in pursuing long-term projects that examine the complex link between human struggle and perseverance. When the Spirit Moves is an attempt to bring awareness to the issues that plague many inner city black communities, like Chester, throughout America. Most importantly, though, it’s an attempt to show the resilience present in these communities.

The Urban Cave by Andrea Star Reese
Since 2007 I have been working on The Urban Cave , a story about the resilience and humanity of people who live “homeless” on the other side of conventional society. It is about a group of individuals and the spectrum of their lives, rather than their deprivations.
This series of 35mm digital prints comes from time spent on the street following unsheltered men and women who are part of an illusive culture not always considered with sympathy, and yet who accept my company. Homeless men and women continue to cooperate with me out of a desire to tell their story.
Born in Milwaukee Wisconsin, USA in 1952, Andrea Star Reese is a graduate of the 2007/2008 Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program at the International Center of Photography in New York, where she received an International Center of Photography Director’s Scholarship in 2008. Her photographs have been exhibited at The International Center of Photography, the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China, Visa Pour L’image in Perpignan, France and in New York. The Urban Cave is a story about the resilience and humanity of people who live “homeless” on the other side of conventional society. It is about a group of individuals and the spectrum of their lives, rather than their deprivations.

Falling Into Place by Patricia Lay-Dorsey
I lived with multiple sclerosis for 20 years before taking the self-portraits that appear in the series, Falling Into Place. During those years I moved from walking unaided to walking with a cane, from a cane to a walker, and in 2000 from a walker to a 3-wheeled motorized scooter.
As an artist-turned-photographer, whenever I would see photo essays or articles featuring persons with disabilities, I would assess the work both photographically and personally.
Born in 1942 and currently living in Detroit, Michigan, Patricia Lay-Dorsey is a humanitarian photographer whose intimate work has reached viewers world wide. Falling Into Place is a series of self portraits that celebrates the artist’s day-to-day life. Patricia was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 22 years ago and has been using a 3-wheeled motorized scooter since 2000. She hopes this series will help the viewer place themselves within a body that operates differently from their own while revealing our common humanity.

SPOTLIGHT AWARD

The Study of Kin by Marcia Michael
When embarking on my research I hoped to find images of black people that displayed a superficially impartial aesthetic, like those of Julia Margaret Cameron, and Fred Holland Day in the 19th century, but by black photographers. However, such images showing positive representations of black subjects were not evident in the British national archives.
I was astonished by this lack of visibility and could hardly believe that in Britain, unlike in the USA, representations of black people by black photographers, from the time of the invention of Photography onwards, did not exist.
British photographer Marcia Michael is a graduate of the London College of Communication. The Study of Kin is an anthropological study of race, i.e. human classification through the recording, representation, collection and display of difference. It explores the ways in which both institutional and private photographic archives – including the family album – generate and perpetuate systems of social control.

Fifteen by Ilana Panich-Linsman
Fifteen is a photo essay examining a small corner of female teenage culture.
American photographer Ilana Panich-Linsman, from Western Massachusetts, is a graduate of the International Center for Photography’s Photojournalism & Documentary photography program and a member of the VII Agency’s Mentorship program. Her project, Fifteen, focuses on the lives of teenage girls in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

Urban Quilombo by Sebastian Liste
Urban Quilombo is an ongoing project documenting the housing deficit in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil; mainly due to the exorbitant economical and demographic growth and the resulting real state speculation that the Brazilian Northeast is experiencing.
This situation has left thousands of families without a home. Since 2003, the “Movimento dos Sem Teto da Bahia” (The Homeless Movement) has been using farms, factories and abandoned buildings to provide homes for the homeless.
Born in Spain in 1985, Sebastian Liste has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the 2010 Ian Parry Scholarship. Urban Quilombo is an ongoing project documenting the housing deficit in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.