SYRACUSE, NY (February 26, 2008) - Photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair is the winner of the 2008 Alexia Foundation Grant for professionals, and Matt Eich, a senior photojournalism major at Ohio University, is the student winner, the Alexia Foundation announced today.
The Alexia Foundation for World Peace was established by the family of Alexia Tsairis, an honors photojournalism student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University who was a victim of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight #103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988. She was returning home for the Christmas holidays after spending a semester at the Syracuse University London Centre.
Alexia, known as a promising photojournalism student, had interned for the Associated Press in New York City and she was deeply committed to world peace, supporting the efforts of Amnesty International and Greenpeace. The annual photography grants to professionals and students are "dedicated to helping photographers produce pictures that promote world peace and cultural understanding."
Sinclair is a VII Network contributing photographer who's based in Beirut, Lebanon. From July, 2003 to December, 2007, she worked for Corbis in Iraq and Lebanon. From 1998 to 2003, she was a staff photographer at the Chicago Tribune.
Sinclair graduated from the University of Florida in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communications with an outside concentration in Fine Art Photography. In the summer of 1993 she studied French at the University of Paris - La Sorbonne. During her time in school, she had internships at the Miami Herald, Arizona Republic, St. Petersburg Times, and the Detroit Free-Press.
Since 1999 she has been the publisher of Photobetty.com, the award-winning online publication for women in photography.
The Foundation says there were 242 professional applications that the judges narrowed down to five before selecting Sinclair. The other four portfolios were from Mary Beth Meehan, Krisanne Johnson, Teru Kuwayama, and Aaron Huey.
Student grant winner Eich will receive a full-tuition scholarship to study photojournalism at the Syracuse University London Centre in autumn of 2008 plus a $1,000 grant to produce his winning picture story.
Eich interned at the Portland Oregonian in the summer of 2007 and at the Orange County Register in the spring of 2006. He was College Photographer of the Year in 2006 and was named one of 15 emerging photographers by American Photo Magazine in August, 2007. He was selected to attend the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2005 and won a $10,000 Nikon Scholarship for best student work.
The second place Alexia student grant winner is Justin Maxon, who will graduate from San Francisco State University with a photojournalism degree in 2009. Award of excellence winners are Robert Sukrachand from the Tisch School at New York University, Dinara Sagatoa from Ohio University, and Aaron Borton from Western Kentucky University.
The Foundation says that 52 students from more than 35 universities and one high school applied to the competition this year.
Judging was done at Syracuse University and the judges were Brian Storm, president, MediaStorm, New York; Sally Stapleton, assistant managing editor for photography, graphics, and online for The Day in New London, CT; and Larry Nylund, deputy managing editor for presentation at The Journal News, White Plains, NY.
