Andy Rocchelli Grant is an international award, now in its second edition, promoted by CESURA in the name of its co-founder Andy Rocchelli, photojournalist killed in Ukraine in 2014. Andy was an irreplaceable fire starter, and to make sure that his values as a photographer and as a person can continue to burn, since 2021 CESURA has established a Grant in his name to allow an author or new talent to create a photographic book in full freedom of expression, as Andy would have wanted. 

Printed editorial production was a key aspect of his research as a means of dissemination and completion of the work. The purpose of the Grant is therefore to identify the best unpublished photographic dummy and award the winner with the production and publication of the book by Cesura Publish, the collective’s publishing house.

The first edition of the Grant received 126 applications from more than 25 countries and awarded the prize to Kanta Nomura with the publication of the photobook The Yoshida Dormitory Students’ History with Cesura Publish.

Applications are open from May 24, 2024 in commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of Andy’s passing. The jury will meet in October 2024 to select a short list of finalists. In Febbrary 2025, the winning book will be announced, and launched.

 

Download the guidelines here.

Second Edition Winner

Second Edition Winner

Belén, María Belén - Memory Trans Archive

Belén, María Belén is a photobook that narrates through the photographic archive, documents of the time and autobiographical texts the life of María Belén Correa, an important activist for the rights of transgender people in Argentina and Latin America. From the intimate narrative of her life and her story we can also read the history of the LGTBI community in Latin America and the context that this community suffered during the 80s and 90s. 

Maria Belen’s journey is a story of collective struggle for respect for trans identities and expressions. Throughout her life she founded different organizations and community groups, achieving laws and improving the quality of life of the community and generating support nets in the face of the transphobic contexts that we continue to suffer to this day.

In 2012 María Belén founded the Trans Memory Archive with the mission of gathering and rescuing a documentary archive on the life history of the Argentine trans community and to become a documentary reference and collective memory of trans identities.

Edition: Flor Aletta with the collaboration of Verónica Borsani.

Interior Design: Flor Aletta

Cover and txt design: Verónica Borsani.

Texts: María Belén Correa

SPECIAL MENTION

SPECIAL MENTION

NO HAY - Simone Bacci

The project began during my first trip to Cuba in 2016, shortly after Castro’s death. In less touristy areas, the phrase “NO HAY” (“THERE IS NONE”) is everywhere, especially for essential goods.

Since 2022, the government has introduced stores with imported products, but prices make them inaccessible to most. This work reflects the decline of Castro’s ideal, where healthcare, education, and food were meant to be guaranteed for all.

SPECIAL MENTION

SPECIAL MENTION

THEY FORGOT TO TREAT US - Frank Jeanne

« They forgot to treat us » is a project in the shape of diary. It deals with the aftermath of the 92-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the eyes of Adela Jušić. For the past 5 years, I have been documenting Adela’s daily life shaped by her drug and alcohol addiction, which are the direct consequences of her trauma.

Adela Jušić, an artist from Sarajevo, was 10 years old during the siege of Sarajevo. She grew up in this besieged city, pounded and ravaged by incessant bombardment. A generation marked by war and death. A generation without landmarks, surviving in a kind of perpetual exile, and whose time seems to have stopped.

This diary is a portrait of a war-traumatized generation around intimacy and memory.

About

About

Andy Rocchelli Grant is an international award, now in its second edition, promoted by CESURA in the name of its co-founder Andy Rocchelli, photojournalist killed in Ukraine in 2014. Andy was an irreplaceable fire starter, and to make sure that his values as a photographer and as a person can continue to burn, since 2021 CESURA has established a Grant in his name to allow an author or new talent to create a photographic book in full freedom of expression, as Andy would have wanted.

Printed editorial production was a key aspect of his research as a means of dissemination and completion of the work. The purpose of the Grant is therefore to identify the best unpublished photographic dummy and award the winner with the production and publication of the book by Cesura Publish, the collective’s publishing house.

The first edition of the Grant received 126 applications from more than 25 countries and awarded the prize to Kanta Nomura with the publication of the photobook The Yoshida Dormitory Students’ History with Cesura Publish.

Applications are open from May 24th, 2024 in commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of Andy’s passing.

There’s no entrance fee, no theme and you can send your dummy both printed or PDF.

 

Find out more on the grant guidelines here.

In memory of Andy

In memory of Andy

Andy Rocchelli was an Italian photographer, member and founder of CESURA.
He worked as a photojournalist for eight years, documenting Eastern Europe, the Arab Spring in Libya and Tunisia, human rights violations in Kyrgyzstan and Ingushetia. In Italy, he worked on the phenomenon of velinism and the relationship between migrants and organized crime. At the time of his death, near the city of Sloviansk in Ukraine on May 24th 2014, he was documenting the conditions of civilians trapped in the middle of the Donbass conflict. Russian Interiors, his photography book, was published posthumously by Cesura Publish. Andy was an example of integrity and fairness: in his work he was driven by great passion and constant determination, he lived it in a physical and intuitive way.
To this day, his values are still one of the pillars of our group. He had the ability to see great potential in the small things, and to make more with less.
A fundamental step in his research was printed editorial production, a means of completing and disseminating his work. Andy was an irreplaceable firestarter, and to make sure that his values as a photographer and as a man can continue to burn, we have decided to establish a Grant in his name and to allow an author or a new talent to create a photographic book in full freedom of expression, as Andy would have wanted.

First Edition Winner

First Edition Winner

KANTA NOMURA - The Yoshida dormitory student’s history

The first edition of the Grant received 126 applications from more than 25 countries and awarded the prize to Kanta Nomura with the publication of the photobook The Yoshida Dormitory Students’ History with Cesura Publish.

KANTA NOMURA with The Yoshida dormitory student’s history.

The Yoshida Dormitory is a self-governing dormitory that has been run by students themselves for a long time. It was also a place where a lot of people from inside and outside of the university gathered for the performance of plays and music and fostered student culture. In recent years, the dormitory students have been at odds with the university, which has been demanding that they all leave the dormitory due to the building’s age. However, in April 2019, the university finally filed a lawsuit against the dormitory students, demanding that they vacate the building. The dormitory students disagreed. They have asked for a withdrawal, but the conflict continues.

First Edition - Special Mention

First Edition - Special Mention

MIKHAIL BUSHKOV - Zürich

Due to the high quality of the dummies received, the jury of the first edition of the Andy Rocchelli Grant awarde a first special mention to Mikhail Bushkov and his project Zürich:
“Zürich Is a documentary work that started 10 years ago when I and my wife moved from our hometown of Rostov-on-Don, Russia to Zürich, Switzerland.
I gradually found myself stuck between two places – the “old” home and the “new” home. The memories of the old one fading and the reality of the new one becoming familiar.
The book focuses heavily on my “small” and “big” family and on what it means to be a family.”

First Edition - Special mention

First Edition - Special mention

ANGELO VIGNALI - How to raise a hand

Due to the high quality of the dummies received, the jury of the first edition of the Andy Rocchelli Grant awarded a second special mention to Angelo Vignali and his project How to raise a hand:
“After my father’s death, as I approached the enormous archive of photographs and drawings produced by him throughout his life, I found a cardboard box containing cutouts of photographs of his fingers: 313 black and white handmade prints.
This discovery led me to reshape his body of work to restore a dialogue with him, bringing back his presence through his hands.
The work uses archival photography, performance, and sculpture to explore the themes of family, memory, and loss. It is a search and longing for identity.”