10×10 Photobooks is very excited and pleased to announce the winners of the latest round of Research Grants on Photobook History. This 4th edition continues the program’s focus on research and scholarship that seeks to fill gaps and provide missing information in the history of the photobook and was focused on research related to 10×10 Photobooks’ Flashpoint! project on protest and social conflict. We were again impressed with the strength and breadth of the submissions reflecting the interest and energy in the photobook world and for this cycle, we are very happy to be able to award four grants.
The four recipients of this year’s research grants are:
Eliana Del Rosario
Amber Mirror: Visual Archive of Afro-Caribbean Resistance Photobooks of the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora and its Role in Social Protest (1950-present)
Jury comment: This proposal was welcomed by the jurors for the pioneering nature of this initiative that will undoubtedly expand our knowledge of the history of photobooks within the Afro-Caribbean realm, an area woefully understudied and underrepresented in the field along with its rich potential for community impact and future applications.
Steevez S
Documenting Resistance: Analyzing the Visual Archives of Dalit Murasu in Chronicling Tamil Dalit Struggles
Jury comment: This project offers the precious opportunity to examine how the visual archives of a publication like Dalit Murasu can offer an invaluable source of information in uncovering the underrepresented narratives and struggles of Tamil Dalit communities over the past 75 years. I am very much looking forward to its outcome.
This research will enhance the limited scholarship around this publication and the Dalit community and its struggle for civil rights, integrating this narrative into the broader discourse on protest photography in print.
Photo by Parvathy
aliwen
Women Come Alive: Michiko Matsumoto’s Photobooks and the Ephemera of Women’s Lib in Japan
Jury comment: We were impressed by this proposal that clearly identifies a highly specific and influential body of work in a field that is in need of further study. The proposal’s scope also reaches beyond the photobook into adjacent forms of media.
The submission to examine Michiko Matsumoto’s photobooks from the late 1970s and 1980s, a period in which the artist was actively documenting the Women’s Liberation movement in Japan, was impressive for its potential to explore a topic with depth and focus during a pivotal moment in Matsumoto’s creative practice and Japan’s feminist cause.
Megan N. Liberty
Women’s Radical Self-Publishing of their Bodies, Xerox in the 1960s-1980s: Barbara T. Smith and Joan Lyons
Jury comment: The jurors welcomed the approach looking closely at the important work of Smith and Lyons and their different paths in tandem with exploring the impact of xerography on their practice and opportunities.
Photo by Marth Juarez
Many thanks to our jurors, Elisa Medde, Jon Evans, and Marc Feustel for their work in reviewing and considering the many proposals.
The Jurors:
Elisa Medde is a photography editor, curator , writer and educator, with a background in Art History, Iconology and Photographic Studies. Medde has nominated for prizes and chaired juries, including the Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award, Prix Elysée and MAST Photography Grant on Industry and Work, and her writing has appeared in FlashArt, PhotoEye, Time, Foam, Something We Africans Got, Vogue Italia / L’Uomo Vogue, YET magazine, the Aperture PhotoBook Review, British Journal of Photography and many artists’ books. Between 2012–2023, she served as editor-in-chief of Foam magazine, twice the recipient of a Lucie Award for Best Photography Magazine. She is the recipient of the 2023 Royal Photographic Society Award for outstanding achievement in photographic publishing.
Photo by Fiona Makkink
Jon Evans is the Chief of Libraries & Archives at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), where he has spent the past three decades connecting scholars, students, and the general public with art research materials. During this time, he has helped to develop an internationally recognized photography book collection that complements the museum’s world-class photography collection. Among the premier research collections acquired during his tenure is the Manfred Heiting Book Collection, particularly noted for its strength in Japanese, Russian, and German photobooks. He has organized over two dozen book exhibitions, many of which have focused on photobooks such as post-war Japanese photobooks, photobook maquettes, and jazz photobooks, as well as installations featuring the publications of Lee Friedlander, Bea Nettles, and Beaumont Newhall. In 2017, Evans arranged to host the CLAP! 10×10 Contemporary Latin American Photobooks pop-up display organized by 10×10 Photobooks at the MFAH. He has taught a series of workshops in conjunction with the Houston Center for Photography devoted to the photobook that have addressed topics as diverse as history and highlights, photo periodicals, advocacy and social justice, and pre-publication works. Evans regularly presents on the topic of photobooks in an art museum context, including collection building, community engagement, and issues of discovery and access. He has also been an active member of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) for more than two decades, serving as President of the Society in 2012.
Photo by Emma Evans
Marc Feustel is an independent writer, editor and curator based in Paris. A specialist in Japanese photography, he has curated several exhibitions in the field, including Tokyo Stories (Kulturhuset, Stockholm), Eikoh Hosoe: Theatre of Memory (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney), and New Japanese Photography 1974→2024 (T3 Photo Festival, Tokyo). He regularly contributes to contemporary art and photography publications including I’m So Happy You Are Here (Aperture, 2024), Flashpoint! Protest Photography in Print, 1950-Present (10×10 Photobooks, 2024), and At the edge of the everyday world by Rinko Kawauchi (Arnolfini, 2024). A regular speaker and jury member at photography festivals and events, since 2019 he has been one of the hosts of the Artist Talks at the Paris Photo art fair.
Photo by Gianluca Tamorri
The jury and 10×10 congratulate the winners and look forward to sharing the results of their research with the photobook community in the next year.
The 10×10 Photobooks Grants Program is coordinated by David Solo with assistance from 10×10 work-scholar Kun Ling Shen.
10×10’s Research Grants for Cycle 4 (2025-2026) are generously underwritten by Fédérique Destribats, Dayanita Singh and the Grace Jones Richardson Family Trust.