DURHAM, NC (January 10, 2007) – Nikon Inc. has elected not to fund the NPPA-Nikon Documentary Sabbatical Grant for 2007 and so there will not be a grant awarded to a photojournalist for a project this year, the president of the National Press Photographers Association said today.
“However, NPPA is working on securing sponsorship for the grant in the coming year,” Tony Overman said, “because we believe the sabbatical grant is a very important part of the documentary photojournalism community, and a very important program for NPPA’s members. NPPA will find a party to co-sponsor the grant, probably under a new name so that we can honor the 21 years of the Nikon relationship with the grant, and we’ll move forward.”
In a statement released today, a spokesman for Nikon Inc. said, "Nikon is proud to have co-founded and sponsored the NPPA Sabbatical Grant for 22 years and help it grow to its current prominence and stature. Although Nikon will no longer be a sponsor of this program, the company looks forward to its continued support of various other NPPA programs through Nikon Professional Services (NPS). Nikon also hopes to work together with the NPPA to explore new opportunities for creating programs that reflect Nikon's commitment to the professional photographers' community."
This is not the first year that the grant has skipped having an annual winner. Established in 1985, the first winner was April Saul of the Philadelphia Inquirer. It was awarded again in 1986 to David Peterson of the Des Moines Register for a project on American farms that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for photography, but the grant was not awarded again until 1988.
The sabbatical grant was skipped in 1987 due to an administrative delay after the first two rounds, according to NPPA past president C. Thomas Hardin. It was Hardin and Nikon's Bill Pekala who established the grant after Hardin conceived the idea during a Flying Short Course stop. Hardin says that in 1987 they decided not to rush the application period and the judging process that year, and they simply resumed the sabbatical on schedule again in 1988.
This past December there was no “Call For Entries” from NPPA for the documentary sabbatical grant because the organization knew that the sponsorship renewal was being deliberated, and the timing was awkward due to the traditional December entry deadline. Overman says NPPA didn’t want photographers doing the work of applying for the grant and assembling an entry if there wasn’t going to be a judging and a winner, and at the same time wanted to be fair to Nikon Inc. as they decided whether to renew their co-sponsorship of the grant.
Photojournalist David Peterson's 1986 winning essay on American farmers in financial crisis went on to win a Pultizer Prize, and John Kaplan's 1990 winning essay about the problems of youth turning 21 in American culture also won the Pulitzer. Winning grant essays by Rita Reed, John Ficara, and Eugene Richards were also published as books.
Brooklyn's Brenda Ann Kenneally was the only two-time winner of the NPPA-Nikon Documentary Sabbatical Grant, in 2000 and again in 2005.
Hardin chaired the grant committee for NPPA while he was at the Louisville Courier-Journal, then turned it over to chair Bill Luster in 1993 when Hardin moved on to The Detroit News. A lengthy feature story on the grant's history and winners was published in the November 2006 issue of News Photographer magazine.
Overman said today that he expects to be able to announce more news about a sabbatical grant program in the coming weeks.
