2021 in Review

2021 was an incredible year for The Everyday Projects! We launched a new podcast, held a series of online classes, launched our first grant, and continued our work with the world's most prominent publications – not to mention the world's best photographers!

Repicture: A podcast of The Everyday Projects

From September to November, we released Season 1 of Repicture, a podcast featuring candid conversations with photographers, academics, reporters, and editors on the ethics and practice of visual storytelling. Co-hosts Nyasha Kadandara and Tasneem Alsultan take on the topics of representation, mental health, sexual harassment, accountability, making mistakes, and self reflection. We aim to bring what are often private conversations into the public arena.

You can listen to the whole season, edited and produced by The Everyday Projects' Elie Gardner, anywhere you listen to podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.

The Everyday Projects Grant

The Everyday Projects awarded its first grants in August, to two photographers working on long-term projects in their own communities: Salih Basheer and Tania Barrientos Radilla. Tania is telling the story of Afro-Mexican women in the Costa Chica of Guerrero, Mexico, where historically feminist traditions are, as Tania puts it, "built through community solidarity." Salih's work is deeply personal, exploring family archives and photographing locations from his childhood in Sudan as he revisits the time, when he was very young, when his parents died. In addition to receiving $6,000 each, these two grantees will receive one year of mentorship from Mallory Benedict, Photo Editor at National Geographic, and Jehan Jillani, Visuals Editor at The Atlantic.

More than 450 photographers applied from all over the world, and we were so impressed by their work and their dedication to projects that uplift and highlight their communities. In addition to our winners, we announced one Honorable Mention and nine other Finalists:

Honorable Mention:

Zohreh Sabaghnejad | Yazd, Iran | @zohreh.sabagh | zohrehsabagh.ir

Finalists:

Amina Kadous | Cairo, Egypt | @amina.kadous | aminakadous.com

Andrés Yépez | Quito, Ecuador | @pre_des_ido | andresyepez.com

DeLovie Kwagala | Johannesburg, South Africa | @deloviephotography | deloviephotography.com

Farshad Usyan | Kabul, Afghanistan | @farshadusyan

Fawaz Oyedeji | Lagos, Nigeria | @fawaz.oyedeji | fawazoyedeji.com

Fethi Sahraoui | Algiers, Algeria | @fethi.sahraoui | fethisahraoui.net

Gabriella Báez | San Juan, Puerto Rico | @gabriellanbaez | gabriellanbaez.com

Grasielle Barbaresco | São Paulo, Brazil | @grasibarbaresco | grasibarbaresco.com

Rehab Eldalil | Cairo, Egypt | @rehabeldalil | rehabeldalil.com 

We plan to continue this program with new grants next year. For the rest of 2021, all donations go to our grant program. Can you make a tax-deductible to help get us there?

The Essentials

We were thrilled to host two full seasons (Spring and Fall) of The Essentials, a series of online classes for photographers presented by The Everyday Projects + Black Women Photographers. The free, weekly workshops (which you can watch on our website) are for emerging and experienced editorial photographers interested in learning more about the ins and outs of professional photojournalism.

The workshops cover a wealth of topics, including Yagazie Emezi guiding us through her personal projects and finding her own creative voice in photography, Alison Baskerville and Tara Pixley detailing how to manage risk, safety, and trauma as a journalist, learning the how-to's of grant writing and finding funds for your story with Danielle Villasana, and much more.

Women on the Move

A team of eight women photographers from The Everyday Projects — Amrita Chandradas, Danielle Villasana, Ksenia Kuleshova, Miora Rajaonary, Mridula Amin, Nichole Sobecki, Saiyna Bashir, and Thana Faroq — highlights how modern migration is impacting women worldwide in a project published this year in National Geographic Magazine. "Women on the Move" was highlighted in exhibitions around the world, including Photoville and the Head On Photo Festival, and was also published in National Geographic France, National Geographic Indonesia, and Marie Claire Italia.

At a time when immigration policies worldwide are becoming more stringent and borders are closing, this project, with stories spanning more than a dozen communities from around the globe, from Singapore and Honduras to South Africa and Yemen, shows a comprehensive view of how women are caught in the web of migration—and how they are resilient despite these circumstances, which are out of their control. 

Collaboration with NPR

The Everyday Projects once again teamed up with NPR to examine different topics related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Everyday Projects contributors photographed people who could once provide regular meals for themselves and their families but are now struggling because of the pandemic and healthcare workers in the throes of caring for Covid-19 patients.

Our Growing Community

Our global movement continues to grow, with Everyday Kurdestan, Everyday Bangladesh, and Everyday Portugal joining our effort.

Photographers in our community worked with some of the world’s most prominent media outlets this year, exhibited their work around the globe, won major awards, and so much more. Check out more in our Latest News and Publications sections.

Exhibitions

The Everyday Projects was proud to be featured at global exhibits throughout the year, including Cairo Photo Week and World Press Photo Oldenburg. 

Cairo Photo Week

The Everyday Projects: New Stories and Horizons Photo Exhibition was on display at Cairo Photo Week in March. The exhibition was curated by Peter DiCampo and Wacera Njagi and showcased stories from 25 photographers contributing to Everyday Egypt, Everyday Africa, and Everyday Middle East.

Oldenburg

Alongside the World Press Photo Exhibition 2020, Everyday Africa curated a selection of images for the second year in a row from contributing photographers and members of the African Photojournalism Database (APJD) that went on display at the Oldenburg Castle in Germany. Curated by Wacera Njagi, the selection brought together the photographic work of 26 African image-makers through documentary photography, pursuing the theme of social protest at home.

We are excited about our plans for 2022, which include:

• Building and producing Season 3 of The Essentials so that we can continue addressing the needs of our community

• The second year of our grant and mentorship program so we can support emerging photographers working on long-term personal projects

• Producing Season 2 of Repicture, highlighting important conversations about equity and representation within our industry

• Launching a new k-12 curriculum for students to learn about journalism and create their own Everyday projects, with our partners PhotoWings

• And much more!

Thanks to all of our partners, collaborators, and supporters

As we head into our 10th year as The Everyday Projects, we continue to work to center our community members' needs in everything that we do. We work to provide opportunities, structure, and support for our global community of storytellers. We hope you’ll join the cause to help us continue our mission in the new year.