LONDON - AUGUST 22: Guests look at photographs at the annual Ian Parry Scholarship held at the Getty Images gallery on August 22, 2006 in London, England. The scholarship aims to nurture young photojournalists and develop emerging talent in the industry. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Ian Parry was a photojournalist who died while on assignment for The Sunday Times during the Romanian revolution in 1989. He was just 24 years old. The Ian Parry Scholarship was set up by me, Aidan Sullivan, then picture editor of The Sunday Times and Ian’s friends and family in order to build something positive from such a tragic death.

Each year, Getty Images supports the scholarship which is for photographers who are attending a full-time photography course or who are 24 years of age or below. Entrants must submit a digital portfolio of their work and a brief synopsis of a project they would undertake if they won the award. This year, we’ve made it even easier for students to apply. All that they have to do is upload their work and application form to an FTP site (instructions can all be found at www.ianparry.org).

Winners receive £3,000 towards their assignment and £500 to those awarded highly commended and commended.

As you can imagine this is a significant prize for a photographer. With the continued support of The Sunday Times Magazine, which publishes the winner’s work, the scholarship provides a launch into a professional photography career. Year after year, the award has highlighted the work of some of the industry’s finest emerging talent.

Judging for 2008 will take place at the Frontline Club in London on July 1, and I am delighted to announce that we have a prestigious group of judges, including former winner Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen (see complete list below). We are also delighted to announce that World Press Photo has again agreed to automatically accept the winner onto their final list of nominees for the Joop Swart Masterclass in Amsterdam. This is because of so many of our previous winners having attended this prestigious event in recent years.

Our 2008 jury are: Don McCullin Patron, Jonas Bendiksen/Magnum Photos & 2002 Winner, Tom Stoddart Getty Images, Tony Chambers Editor-in-Chief Wallpaper* magazine, Cheryl Newman Photography Director Saturday Telegraph magazine, John Downing Trustee, Steve Blogg Getty Images, Stephen Reid Art Director Sunday Times magazine and Ian’s family.

Nuns move through the crowd at National park ahead of the papal mass on April 17, 2008 in Washington, DC. Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Catholic Mass for an audience of 45,000 at the ballpark. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

With skyscrapers reaching into the sky like the spires of a secular cathedral, I dropped to a knee on 5^th Avenue as the nun lowered her head and gently kissed her prayer book. I held my breath and released the shutter. She closed the book after praying and singing with her sisters and turned her eyes back to the street in hopes of catching a glimpse of the holiest man she knows. Like tens of thousands of other Catholics, both everyday faithful and clergy alike, they had come to New York to experience and pray with Pope Benedict XVI.

When my editors offered me the opportunity to cover the pope in both Washington, DC, and New York City I gladly accepted. I knew that covering Pope Benedict XVI would be just like covering any head-of-state. There would be layers and layers of security, bureaucracy, public affairs people and hours of boredom punctuated with that one fleeting moment. All the opportunities where the press and the people were able to see the pope were staged, packaged and predictable. The pope would arrive on time, move with steady purpose from pre-marked spot to pre-marked spot. He would cruise along in the back of the Popemobile waving like an animatronic holy man behind bullet-proof glass. The uniformity of vestments and religious procedure, combined with the scale of the events, would make it all a predictable pageant. Knowing that, I decided to put energy in finding people who hoped this visit would be a holy experience. I wanted to find photographs that spoke to a beautiful combination of the personal and the public: the spiritual privacy within the public religious pageantry.

WASHINGTON - APRIL 17: Catholic priests line up in the concourse to give the faithful communion as Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at the new Nationals Park April 17, 2008 in Washington, DC. This is the first of two Masses that the pope will say during his five-day trip to the United States including one in New York’s Yankee Stadium on Sunday, April 20. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

So, meeting the nuns from the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity from Seattle, Washington, was a blessing. They were friendly, offering me food and conversation; and humorous, snapping my photo while I took theirs. One moment the nuns circled together under Manhattan’s hovering towers and prayed. The next moment, as Pope Benedict XVI rolled by, they were screaming and hopping like 1950s Beatles fans, shouting “We love you Holy Father!” and “Viva el Papa!”

More experiences like that helped me pull back the pomp from the papal visit. In a stadium filled with 45,000 worshipers in Washington, I sought out a woman with hands clasped, head bowed in prayer. As pilgrims from around the world poured into the nation’s capitol ahead of the Pope’s arrival, I found a light moment where a boy high-fives a life-size photo of the Pope. After 60,000 people filed into the Yankee Stadium, I photographed the woman locked outside the gates, shouting for the pope to save and bless her. And, with a little luck and fleet feet, I found the subway car carrying a dozen nuns, their joyful voices singing “We are praying for Pope Benedict!”

NEW YORK - APRIL 19: A nun from the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity from Seattle, Washington, kisses her prayer book after prayer with her sisters while waiting for Pope Benedict XVI along 5th Avenue April 19, 2008 in New York City. The pope will make a historic visit to the former site of the World Trade Center and celebrate Mass in Yankee Stadium before departing New York April 20. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The “official” coverage was not without its logistical challenges, either. Call times for security sweeps were amazingly early. Buses would leave from the “media hotel” in the wee hours of the morning to carry groggy journalists to Nationals Park, Yankee Stadium, and Ground Zero. Because I cover heads-of-state in DC every day, I’m used to invasive screening applied to our bodies and our gear. Shooters not accustomed to this got a real lesson in what is public and what is private at the hands of the Secret Service. All pockets were turned out and metal removed, bags emptied, laptops had to be pulled from bags and booted up, lens caps removed, cameras turned on and shutters tripped. And, finally, a clumsy, wet-nosed K-9 stepped all over our gear, sniffing for bomb-making material and leaving a mess behind.

There was also the constant pressure of deadline. The New York Police Department informed us that no stepladders or backpacks were going to be allowed along 5^th Avenue as the pope moved up the street past thousands of adoring fans. To satisfy the 24-second news cycle and instant deadline world, Getty Images reserved a hotel room near the Pope’s route from which we could transmit images quickly. But, as with all massive and ever-shifting events on the streets of New York, I saw plenty of backpacks and more than a handful of ladders on the avenue. However, I did talk to a photographer who was threatened with arrest for opening his laptop on the street even after the pontiff had long passed.

The prayer service at Ground Zero posed a real challenge because our preset shooting position changed several times. Our original position in the pit was two stories up, 100 yards away and behind the Pope. Secret service didn’t like us there and moved us closer and in a position to see the Pope in profile. “Great!” we thought until we realized that the ceremony’s attendant would block us from seeing the Pope during most of the ceremony.

At the end of the visit, I felt my best images were of the least fortunate and most faithful. These included images of the worshippers who didn’t score the much-coveted tickets to see the Pope’s Mass, milling around outside the stadium, buying bootleg buttons and Bibles with the Pope’s image not because it was the officially sanctioned memorabilia, but because they love him. My cameras focused on the crowd that stood for hours for a chance to see the Popemobile from half a mile away simply because it carried a man, though small in stature, who carried the hope and faith of millions of people.

NEW YORK - APRIL 20: Rosa Rodriguez of Queens, New York, wears a flag with the image of Pope Benedict XVI on her head while singing and praying across the street from Yankee Stadium April 20, 2008 in the Bronx, New York. The pontiff is scheduled to celebrate Mass for about 55,000 people at the stadium. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

John Moore/Getty Images

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN - DECEMBER 27: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto addresses thousands of supporters at a campaign rally minutes before she was assassinated on December 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The opposition leader died from wounds to the neck and head after speaking at an election rally in the northern city where an estimated 15 people were left dead by the explosion.

In the latest Getty Images photographer podcast, Getty Images CEO and Co-Founder Jonathan Klein recently talked with staff photographer John Moore to discuss what it is like working behind the lens in the middle of a conflict and living life as an award-winning photojournalist in Pakistan.

Throughout his career, John has traveled and lived in several parts of the world including Nicaragua, India, South Africa, Egypt and for the past three years, Islamabad, Pakistan. Since joining Getty Images in 2005, John has extensively covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, photographing the US and British military in some of the world’s most dangerous combat zones.

Last year, John spent much of his time covering Pakistan’s slide into instability. In December 2007, he was the only American photojournalist to capture the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the chaotic moments thereafter.

John earned two first-place World Press Photo awards for his coverage of the Bhutto assassination and was awarded this year’s “Magazine Photographer of the Year” from Pictures of the Year International (POYi) and was awarded “Photojournalist of the Year” from the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA).

To learn more about John, don’t miss his previous Getty Images blog posts:

The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto

Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery

Picture courtesy of Lorena Ros - Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography winner - February 2008

Calling all photojournalists interested in winning one of five $20,000 grants - please apply by May 15, 2008.

Getty Images awards five Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography each year to fund, inspire and support the best global talent in photojournalism. Two grants are awarded in February; three in September.

Each grant consists of $20,000 plus project execution support from Getty Images editors. While retaining copyright of their imagery, grant recipients also have the option to sign a one year exclusive rights deal with Getty Images, enabling their grants project imagery to be marketed and available for license to editorial customers at www.gettyimages.com.

Grant application and submission guidelines, plus additional information on previous winners, their projects and the judges can be found by clicking here.

Good luck!

Harry Cabluck/AP via Getty Images

Seen in this handout photo, photographer Eddie Adams poses at the Republican (GOP) National Convention August, 1992 in Houston, Texas.

The Eddie Adam Workshops are now accepting applications for a once in a lifetime experience.

The Workshop is an intense four-day gathering of the top professionals in photojournalism, along with 100 carefully selected students. The Workshop’s purpose is to create a forum in which an exchange of ideas, techniques and philosophies can be shared between both established members and newcomers of the profession of photojournalism. The Workshop is tuition free and the 100 students are chosen based on the merit of their portfolios.

Last year, Chris Hondros (a Getty Images photographer and former Eddie Adam Workshop student) and Pancho Bernasconi (Getty Images managing editor for news) were leaders of a team. Click here to read all about their experience.

John Moore/Getty Images

As the sole American journalist present at the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in late December, Getty Images’ senior staff photographer John Moore was interviewed extensively by international media following the event. What follows, however, is the only account that he has written about that day:

She came out waving and smiling and standing up through the sun roof of her armoured car. I couldn’t believe it then and I still can’t today.

I was actually walking away at the time. The campaign rally had finished and I had squeezed through the single narrow gate of the fenced park. I wanted to get ahead of the throngs of Benazir Bhutto supporters. But when I heard a cheer erupt, I turned around, and there she was.

I pushed my way back 50 yards through the frenzied mob of devotees. Shoving past people to get close to her vehicle. I shot 15 frames just in front of her car, photos of her waving goodbye to her supporters.

As the former prime minister’s car surged forward, I pushed out of the way, ahead of her vehicle. I needed to adjust my camera. In the melee, the shutter setting had been bumped down to 1/15th and 1/8th of a second, giving the photos an unintended impressionistic look.

I turned on my flash, but just before resetting the lens, I turned and glanced back at her car.

Just then I heard three shots, which sounded as if they were fired from close to her car. I watched her drop down through the sunroof, and I raised my camera, my finger pressed down on the shutter release.

Just as the camera came up in front of my face, the bomb went off.

(more…)

Gay Pride March - Thousands marched from Zoo Lake in Rosebank in Johannesburg to show their pride and celebrate diversity. Photo by: Shepherd Tozvireva 

A woman carries the one piece of furniture she has left - a chair- after she was evicted from her apartment building in Johannesburg. Photo by Sechaba Nhlapo

As the second class of the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Program (PDP) is about to graduate and the first class graduates are proving their skills in their new jobs, it’s time to display and acknowledge the work done by the students.

PDP is a year-long photography course which provides aspiring photojournalists in South Africa the practical support of leading professionals and necessary skills to enter this highly competitive field. It culminates in a three month internship for each emerging photographer at a local newspaper.

To view some of the images from the newest generation of Africa’s photojournalists, don’t miss Portfolio 07 - an exhibition of work from the latest PDP graduates. The exhibition will run through February 6, 2008 at the Photo Workshop Gallery at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg.

This course was launched in 2005 with significant support from Getty Images. After two cycles, seven students have graduated and 8 more will earn their certificates by the end 2007. Not one week passes in Johannesburg without PDP students’ images on the front pages and inside local publications.

A man is arrested by police for public violence while protesting against poor service delivery. Photo by Sechaba Nhlapo.

Sister Bernadette Boulle (pictured above) is the only one of her five siblings still alive. She worked as an office clerk for nine years before entering the faith as a nun. Picture by Samantha Simmons.

Brent Stirton/Getty Images

I went to Ukraine to work on HIV issues because, at the time, it was experiencing the fastest acceleration of HIV infection in the world. I had very little time on this trip, it’s an expensive place to work and I was covering the worst elements of the HIV crisis in a 14-day sprint across the country. After a whirlwind tour across half Ukraine, a horror show of disease, ignorance and neglect, I came eventually to Donetsk, a bleak industrial ruin of a town.

Industry has collapsed since the fall of communism and the majority of the population live in the abject poverty of prolonged unemployment, men and women living each day under a cloud of impotent fatalism. There is very little possibility of improved circumstances and people know that. They looked at me with a mixture of resignation and contempt, as well as a rare opportunity for cash made manifest.

(more…)

Tom Stoddart/Getty Images

I have been documenting the AIDS pandemic in Sub-Sahara Africa for about five years. Nearly 9,000 Africans die from the disease everyday, leaving millions of children orphaned. By the time you have finished watching the short, yet powerful film below, around 30 people will have died from AIDS.

You can’t escape AIDS in Africa - you are either infected or affected.

 

 Tom Stoddart video [4:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Kabul, Afghanistan: I came to the Malalai hospital to shoot a story on surviving childbirth. The maternity facility delivers an average of 60-100 babies a day. In Afghanistan, one in nine Afghan women die during or shortly after pregnancy, which remains one of the highest mortality rates in the world for maternal mortality. In many cases, Afghan conservative cultural sensibilities put the health of the Afghan mother at risk.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Ziajan, 35, was waiting on the operation table; she was almost full term and had a ruptured placenta along with heavy vaginal bleeding - every minute counted. The problem was her husband was not there to sign the consent form so the nurses just waited and started on another emergency case. In the mean time, Ziajan was in extreme pain. She was getting some blood to stabilize her until the cesarean operation could begin.

Ziajan’s case was truly heart breaking, the baby inside her womb was dead. He was to be her first son after having nine girls. Out of the nine, two had already died. In Afghan culture, having a male is extremely important and many women don’t have the choice but to keep trying until they are finally successful. Given Ziajan’s age and her health condition, this would have to be her last try. Knowing the Afghan culture like I do, I now understand why her husband was absent.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

About 45 minutes went by until the nurses could get going, I was told they got a signature from her brother. They started the c-section, the incision was made into her belly to bring out the fetus as I continued to photograph. All of a sudden the power went out and the room went dark. A few minutes passed but it seemed like ages. It was the second day of the big EID holiday, just after the end of the holy month of Ramadan so who knew how long it would take for someone to turn on the generator.

The surgeon was getting anxious and I knew this case was critical. I said to one nurse in Dari that I would be right back. I made the quick decision to go and grab a small key light I had in my photo bag. It was only a tiny light that I used to find things at night but it was all I had. I scrambled to find it in the dark but finally managed. I ran back and held the light over the pregnant woman’s belly. Immediately the operation team started up again using only my light. It was hard to keep it on since it was just one of those purse size ones that was made for short-time usage, once or twice it went off and the nurses started to please with me to try harder to keep it on.

Photographing was over for certain as I watched them bring out the lifeless baby boy. Finally the generator was cranked up and the lights came back on. Ziajan’s condition was still serious but the surgeon smiled a bit and turned to me saying, “tasha kor.” This means thank you in Dari.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images