Newhouse School of Communications

March 9, 2009

David Sutherland, Alexia Tsairis Endowed Chair in Documentary Photography in Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, recently announced the winners in the 2009 Alexia International Photojournalism Competition, hosted at the Newhouse School.

Photographer Walter Astrada won the $15,000 Alexia Foundation professional grant for his proposal to document violence against women in India. Astrada, born in Argentina in 1974, is a freelancer based in Kampala, Uganda, and a stringer for Agence France-Presse.

Student Competition winners:

• Chris Kiilsgaard placed first with a proposal to document poverty in Eastern Kentucky. Kiilsgaard, who is from Corvallis, Ore., is a senior history major at Western Kentucky University. He was awarded a full tuition scholarship to study photojournalism at Syracuse University in London in fall 2009, plus a $1,000 cash grant to help produce his project.
• Yanina Manolova, a graduate student at Ohio University, placed second. A native of Bulgaria, she earned a degree in fine arts in education at Sofia University in Bulgaria. Manolova was awarded a half tuition scholarship to study photojournalism at Syracuse University in London in fall 2009, plus a $500 cash grant to help produce her project.

Award of Excellence winners are:

• Philip Scott Andrews, a senior at Western Kentucky University;
• Khaled Hasan, a student at Pathshala South Asian Institute of Photography in Bangladesh, graduating in 2009; and
• Bryan Anselm, a senior at Western Kentucky University.

Each Award of Excellence winner received a $1,600 scholarship to pay part of tuition, fees and living expenses to study photojournalism at Syracuse University in London in fall 2009, plus a $500 cash grant to help produce their proposed projects.

Judges were Sherman Williams, AME/Visuals at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Bob Houlihan, director of photography at the Detroit News; and Aphrodite Tsairis, who, with her husband, Peter, created the Alexia Foundation, which sponsors the competition.

The Alexia Foundation honors the memory of Alexia Tsairis, a victim of the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. At the time of her death, Tsairis was a junior photojournalism student in the Newhouse School.

The work of current and past competition winners can be viewed online at http://www.alexiafoundation.org/archives/. For more information about the competition, contact Sutherland at (315) 443-3370 or dcsuther@syr.edu.

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Media contact:
Wendy S. Loughlin
(315) 443-2785
wsloughl@syr.edu

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