Tag: nature photography grant

Janie Moore Greene Scholarship Grant supports Pitzer College student

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Images © Beihua Guo

The North American Nature Photography Association Foundation (NANPA Foundation) named Beihua Guo of Agoura Hills, CA, recipient of the 2020 Janie Moore Greene Scholarship Grant. The $2,000 award supports Guo’s continued studies at Pitzer College.

Guo moved to the United States in 2013 and was immediately drawn to the national park system. “Growing up in Shanghai, China, a densely populated urban environment, I never experienced serene nature in my childhood,” he explained.

But as a teenager discovering America’s public lands, Guo was inspired by artists including Thomas Moran and Ansel Adams, as well as John Muir’s efforts in promoting preservation. “My love of the outdoors and landscape photography started to emerge,” he said.

Guo was awarded artist residencies in Lassen Volcanic National Park (CA), Petrified Forest National Park (AZ), and Yellowstone National Park. His studies at Pitzer College in California have included studio art and environmental analysis, but Guo also feels a responsibility to use his nature photographs to address social and environmental issues.

“One of my main interests is water issues in the American West. My Salton Sea series explores the escalating environmental disasters triggered by human activities in the Salton Sea,” said Guo. Located in Southern California, the Salton Sea was accidentally created in 1905 when the Colorado River breached an irrigation canal, flooding the Salton Basin. The manmade lake was once a popular tourist destination, but agricultural runoff and other pollutants resulted in fish and bird die-offs as well as rapidly increasing salinity, threatening the entire ecosystem. “I want to use my photographs and installations to emphasize the process of extraction and excavation, as well as how human activities shape the natural and built environments.”

About the Janie Moore Greene Scholarship Grant

The Janie Moore Greene Scholarship is a $2,000 award presented biennially by the NANPA Foundation to a student specializing in the study of photography at an institution of higher education. The next grant cycle is expected to begin in fall 2022.

NANPA Foundation Announces Krista Schlyer as 2016 Recipient of Philip Hyde Grant

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Award Highlights Use of Photography in Conservation Efforts

Anacostia 11-19-15-3001

The NANPA Foundation is pleased to announce that Krista Schlyer of Mount Rainier, Maryland is the recipient of the 2016 Philip Hyde Grant for her work using photography and visual storytelling to draw attention to one of the United States’ most denuded river ecosystems: the Anacostia River. This $2,500 peer-reviewed grant is awarded annually by the NANPA Foundation to a nature photographer who is actively pursuing completion of an environmental project.

The award will help continue Schlyer’s project which is to create a thorough documentation of the river from its deep biodiversity to the connection of people to this river system, as well as the past and ongoing threats to the river’s health and the solutions that promise a better future. Her documentation of the deforestation, agricultural and urban runoff, and toxic industry which has caused the deterioration of the river’s ecosystem began six years ago. The grant allows her to continue her work which will culminate in August 2018 with a photography/coffee table book, oral history, film, outdoor traveling exhibit and slideshow presentation.

North American beaver (Castor canadensis) on the Anacostia River, Washington DC metro region. USA. July 2014. Cropped

North American beaver (Castor canadensis) on the Anacostia River, Washington DC metro region. USA. July 2014.

Since 1999, the Philip Hyde Grant has been made possible by individual donations to the NANPA Foundation. It is awarded by the NANPA Foundation to a NANPA member who is actively pursuing a peer-reviewed environmental project that is consistent with the missions of NANPA and the NANPA Foundation.

Trash and other pollution in the Anacostia River watershed. Photo taken in the US Arboretum.

Trash and other pollution in the Anacostia River watershed. Photo taken in the US Arboretum.

This grant was named for Philip J. Hyde who was the primary conservation photographer for the Sierra Club and became known for his color images of Western landscapes that became a weapon against environmental degradation.  Photographers receiving the grant are following in his footsteps of environmental protection through photography.

The NANPA Foundation initiates, partners, operates, and generates funding for projects that advance the awareness and appreciation of nature through photography.  For information about the NANPA Foundation, visit its website at www.nanpafoundation.org.

 

Applications for the 2017 award will be accepted beginning in late summer. For more information and updates, visit the NANPA Foundation website.

Great blue heron on the Anacostia River.

Great blue heron on the Anacostia River.