Congratulations to Erika Larsen, Women in Photography Grant Winner

Sunna and Laila from the project Sami, The People © Erika Larsen

A big congratulations to Erika Larsen, the winner of Women in Photography-Lightside Grant! Another congratulations to Erica Allen, the runner-up of the grant!

Women in Photography celebrated their one year anniversary last Wednesday at the National Arts Club in New York City. Along with that came the announcement for their grant winner and runner up, sponsored by Lightside Photographic Services. It was certainly a packed gallery as the viewers kept wondering who the winner of the grant was.

Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips talked about how they came into existence, basically from one email forwarded by Joerg Colberg (Conscientious) about a NY Times article on the topic of "gallerinas." Cara forwarded the article to a number of female artists, photographers, and bloggers and quickly developed a plan with Amy (who conveniently lived 10 blocks away from Cara) to find a way to display work by women photographers. There was fast following and many supported the idea, such as the Humble Arts Foundation, who help host the website. It's amazing how fast Women in Photography gained momentum. 

Erika Larsen will focus on a new series of work entitled, "Sami, The People." The project will focused on the indigenous natives living in the Arctic Circle region of northern Scandinavia. Head over to the website to see a selection of images from the beginning of this project.