This past summer, in the hilltop town of Cortona, Tuscany, renowned photographers, critics and fans all convened in celebration of Cortona on the Move, an international photography exhibition. On the opening weekend of the festival at the historic Teatro Signorelli, the winner of the Visual Storytellers Fund was announced.
This award, supported through an FJC Scholarship & Award Account, highlights projects that illuminate urgent social, environmental, economic and cultural issues of our time.
After fourteen years of grantmaking as the Bar Tur Photo Award, the Visual Storytellers Fund (VSF) was formed as a Scholarship & Award Account held at FJC. Through this specialized Donor Advised Fund at FJC, the fund hosts an annual international award program and provides grants to individual artists, all within U.S. charitable regulations.
Through these awards, the Visual Storytellers Fund has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting photographers whose work illuminates urgent issues and builds bridges of understanding across borders.
To establish a Scholarship & Award account at FJC, donors design fair selection criteria and assemble a jury of unbiased experts, with final approval by FJC’s Board of Directors. For this year’s cycle, the VSF convened seventeen jurors from across the photography and media industry. After three rounds of review and a final interview process, the jury awarded one $30,000 grant and two $5,000 Emerging Photographer Awards.
The headlining award-winner was Daniel Ochoa de Olza, recognized for selected for his project “The Gap/ La Frontera,” a visual investigation of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. With support from the Visual Storytellers Fund Grant, Ochoa de Olza will continue advancing this work, deepening its exploration of identify and place at the border. As part of the award, Ochoa de Olza will be profiled in the next Cortona on the Move exhibition in Italy in July 2026. To be featured, he will submit his completed work in March 2026.
The Emerging Photographer Awards were open to artists under thirty who met VSF’s criteria, with the goal of nurturing the next generation of storytellers. This year’s awardees, Anya Tsaruk and Matin Hashemi, will use their grants to further their ongoing projects. Hashemi’s, “Generation Z,” documents the experience of his generation growing up in Iran, while Tsaruk’s “I Hope Your Family is Safe” reflects on her community’s experience of the war in Ukraine. Through her work, Tsaruk seeks to challenge the “othering” of people at war and inspire empathy rooted in shared human experience, rather than pity.
Through these awards, the Visual Storytellers Fund has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting photographers whose work illuminates urgent issues and builds bridges of understanding across borders.
