Nadia Shira Cohen wins Getty Images and Women Photograph award and grant

Getty Images has announced Nadia Shira Cohen as the winning recipient of its Women Photograph award and grant. Set up to support female photojournalists, the $10,000 grant has been awarded to Nadia for her project, Yo No Di a Luz, exploring “the complete prohibition of abortion in El Salvador, and the many ways in which the criminal abortion ban affects the country’s women,” explains Getty.

Nadia’s work was selected out of 400 entries by a panel including Mallory Benedict, Women Photograph’s managing director and photo editor at National Geographic, and Sandra Stevenson, the picture editor at The New York Times. For Nadia, the award attracted her attention “because of its focus not only of elevating the voice of women photojournalists but also that the recipient would be someone who has a personal connection with the community they are capturing,” explains the photographer. “El Salvador is known as being a volatile place, but I feel confident with my connection to the community there and the funding from the grant that I can continue to shine a light on the dramatic repression of reproductive rights of the women of El Salvador.”

Getty Images’ director of photography, Sandy Ciric, explains that Nadia’s work was chosen for its ability to be both “informative and impactful, and also beautifully rendered with a compassionate eye,” she explains. “Although the topic of reproductive rights is not a new one, Cohen shines a fresh light on the hardships facing El Salvador’s women.”

The award is a partnership between Getty Images and Women Photograph, an initiative working “to elevate the voices of female, female-identifying, and non-binary visual journalists.” Its founder Daniella Zalcman says of the partnership: “As we work towards a truly inclusive industry, partnerships like this with Getty Images are crucial to advancing our mission.”