Swaziland, a kingdom with a population a little over a million and surrounded almost entirely by South Africa, is largely ignored by the media. It has drawn the attention of a few international organization due to the ravages of AIDS. The phenomenon illustrates the complexity of a country whose paradoxes Krisanne Johnson has captured for the past six years, without cliché or overdone pathos
Krisanne Johnson received the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography on Wednesday for her project “I Love You Real Fast,” which documents coming of age of women in Swaziland.
Krisanne Johnson, 34, has been documenting the coming of age of females in the country — where one in two women are infected with H.I.V./AIDS — since 2006. On Wednesday evening, she received the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography in recognition of her project.
Since 2006, photojournalist Krisanne Johnson has been documenting the lives of young women coming of age in Swaziland, a country which reports one of the highest percentages of HIV-positive people in the world.
Getty Images today completed its fifth annual photojournalism grants program by announcing that Krisanne Johnson, Brenda Kenneally (both from the United States) and Zalmai (from Afghanistan and Switzerland) have been selected to each receive $20,000 grants, as well as collaborative editorial support from Getty Images, to pursue their documentary photography projects.
