2022 Alexia Grant Winners

The Alexia supports student and professional visual communicators who produce projects that inspire change by addressing socially significant topics. 

Professional grant recipient: Danielle Villasana

Danielle Villasana, “Abre Camino,” documenting the dangers faced by transgender women in Latin America.

Two women walking down the street hand in hand.
Nahomy, left, and Alexa, right, walk toward the corner where they work in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. On the streets, trans women often experience abuse, sexual assault, threats, theft and extortion from gang members, clients and the police.

Runner-up: James Year

James Year, “The Moment,” about the struggles faced by long-haul truckers in the U.S.

A snowy, gray day on the highway from the viewpoint of a driver.
Andre Ralow Wilson takes a load on Interstate 90 from G&C foods to Utica and Canastota, New York.

Awards of Excellence 

Juan Arredondo, “Colombia: War and Peace, and the Space in Between” 

A woman with an amputated leg sits in a waiting area.
Claudia Joana Cruz seeks a replacement for her prosthetic leg in Medellin, Colombia.

Ben Cleeton, “The Town”

A woman pulling from a hookah.
Oriana Kyles at “the hookah spot” in the basement of a bodega in Syracuse, New York. View a trailer for “The Town.”

Nichole Sobecki, “NATURA”  

A family of 11 shares a two-room apartment in the Mbare neighborhood of Harare, Zimbabwe. People living in slums are at particularly high risk from the impacts of climate change and natural hazards because they live on the most vulnerable lands within cities.

Luke Swenson, “Atascosa Borderlands” 

LEFT: Arranged, a full kit left behind by a border crosser north of Ruby, Arizona. RIGHT: “C” a former “coyote” now living in Arizona.

Student grant recipient: Caitlin Eddolls

Caitlin Eddolls, “Eight Hundred,” about people diagnosed with the rare genetic disorder fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) which causes bone to grow where it shouldn’t.

A young girl carrying tree branches in a black and white photo
Liesl Saufley carries branches she found on the ground to the car to use for handmade wreaths in Syracuse, New York.

Runner-up: Jordi Jon Pardo

Jordi Jon Pardo, “Eroding Franco,” which compares the suppression of scientific archives during the regime of Spanish prime minister Francisco Franco with the current desertification state of Spain.

A silicone head of Franco by Eugenio Merino on exhibit in Barcelona, Spain.

Awards of Excellence  

Isabella Finholdt, “Antes de Ir (Before I Go)”

A young girl whispering into the ear of another young girl.
Lari tells Pamela a secret in their Vale dos Pinheiros housing complex in Brazil.

Bongani Khumalo, “The Chosen One” 

A young black girl holds on to the seat in front of her on a bus.
Passengers hold on during a shaky but affordable ride between Vosloorus and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Faiham Ebna Sharif, “Cha Chakra: Tea Tales of Bangladesh” 

Female workers queue up in the late afternoon to finish their day’s work at Luskerpore Tea Garden, Habiganj, Bangladesh.