Photoville

Joana Toro
Joana Toro
Sarahbeth Maney
Eli Hiller

Eli Hiller, Sarahbeth Maney, and Joana Toro are the recipients of the inaugural Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant from the Pulitzer Center and Diversify Photo, launched in 2020. It is designed to support underreported stories by photojournalists historically underrepresented in the American press. The 2021 Eyewitness Grant call for proposals will launch during Photoville. For more information on how to apply visit: pulitzercenter.org/eyewitness.

Toro’s project documents the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a population in the center of New York City: the costumed performers dressed as Mickey Mouse, Elmo, Batman, and other entertainment icons—a job she once held. The photography offers a lens into the lives of these entertainers when the crowds in Times Square disappeared during the 2020 pandemic.

Maney documented Sophia Tupuola, a first-generation Samoan American who navigated housing insecurity, marched for racial justice, and prepared to give birth to her first child during the coronavirus pandemic. This work focuses on the challenges of giving birth as a woman of color and surviving the impacts of generational trauma.

Hiller’s work documents several health care professionals supporting vulnerable populations of the opioid crisis in Ohio. Hiller focuses on how these professionals are leveraging their personal journeys through drug addiction to battle isolation and hardships.

Artist Bios

  • Eli Hiller

    Eli Hiller is a Filipino American documentary filmmaker and photographer who has covered refugee crises, housing disparities, social movements, and environmental justice in North America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. After graduating from Ohio University in 2016 with a double major in geography and photojournalism, Hiller moved to the Philippines for three years. While there, he engaged with artists across mediums for collaborative projects. Hiller’s journalism and filmmaking earned him a DMZ Documentary Development Grant (2019) and the Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant from the Pulitzer Center (2020). He lives in Columbus, Ohio, covering local movements, and is in pre-production for “Halfie,” a documentary unpacking his journey of finding his siblings.

  • Sarahbeth Maney

    Sarahbeth Maney is a 2021-2022 photography fellow at the New York Times‘ Washington, D.C. bureau. Her personal work focuses on topics related to education, disability, and inequalities that disproportionately impact Black and brown communities. Most recently, she documented the Black Lives Matter movement and the California wildfire season. In addition, she filmed a short documentary following Ahmet Ustunel, the first blind person to kayak independently from Asia to Europe using navigational prototype technology. Maney graduated from San Francisco State University in 2019 with a degree in photojournalism, and has interned at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Flint Journal in Michigan. Her photography has been published by TIMEVanity Fair, Apple, the Washington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others. Maney is a member of Diversify Photo, the National Association of Black Journalists, Authority Collective, and Black Women Photographers.

  • Joana Toro

    Joana Toro is a self-taught Colombian photographer based in both New York City and Bogota, Colombia. Her work explores issues of immigration, human rights, and identity and was featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street JournalWorld Press Photo Witness, Open Society Foundations, and Photoword China Magazine, amongst others. She worked as a staff photographer with the major magazines and newspapers in Colombia before she migrated to the United States in 2011 to further her career as a documentarian and artist. In 2019, she published her second monograph, “Hello I Am Kitty” (Tragaluz, Colombia, 2019). “Hello I Am Kitty” was inaugurated in an exhibition at the Tragaluz and Gabriel Garcia Marquez journalism festival in Medellin, Colombia. In 2020 her work was included in the public collection of the Library of Congress in D.C. It has been exhibited in international photo festivals all over the globe: Les Femmes s’exposent in France, Photoville in New York, Guate Photo in Guatemala, Just Another Festival in India, the International Photography Festival in Pingyao, China, and more.

     

    Joana Toro es una fotógrafa colombiana autodidacta que vive tanto en la ciudad de Nueva York como en Bogotá, Colombia. Su trabajo explora temas de inmigración, derechos humanos e identidad y apareció en the New York Times, the Wall Street JournalWorld Press Photo Witness, Open Society Foundations y Photoword China Magazine, entre otros. Trabajó como fotógrafa de plantilla en las principales revistas y periódicos de Colombia antes de emigrar a los Estados Unidos en 2011 para avanzar en su carrera como documentalista y artista. En 2019, publicó su segunda monografía, “Hello I Am Kitty” (Tragaluz, Colombia, 2019). “Hello I Am Kitty” fue inaugurada en una exposición en el festival de periodismo Tragaluz y Gabriel García Márquez en Medellín, Colombia. En 2020 su obra fue incluida en la colección pública de The Library of Congress en D.C. Se ha exhibido en festivales internacionales de fotografía en todo el mundo: Les Femmes s’exposent France 2019, Photoville New York, Guate Photo, Guatemala, Just another Festival India, International Photography Festival Pingyao China, y más.

Organizations

  • The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

    The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

    The Pulitzer Center raises awareness of underreported global issues through direct support for quality journalism across all media platforms and a unique program of education and public outreach. We support over 200 reporting projects a year, in partnership with more than 150 news organizations with an increasing focus on regional and local outlets to ensure we are reaching diverse audiences. We are raising awareness of the interconnected nature of the greatest challenges of our times and pointing to possible solutions. We serve global public-interest journalism by engaging wide audiences on deeply reported topics and inspiring the next generation to value credible news and cross-cultural understanding.

  • Diversify Photo

    Diversify Photo

    Diversify Photo is a community of BIPOC and non-western photographers, editors, and visual producers working to break with the predominantly colonial and patriarchal eye through which history and the mass media has seen and recorded the images of our time. Our international online database is used by editors at major media outlets seeking to diversify their rosters of visual storytellers. We also create networking, exhibiting, speaking, community-building, and resource-sharing opportunities for our members.

Eyewitness: Who Tells The Stories Of Our Time?

 archive : 2021

Featuring: Eli Hiller Sarahbeth Maney Joana Toro

Curated by: Claire Seaton

Presented by: The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Diversify Photo
  • The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
  • Diversify Photo

Locations

View Location Details Brooklyn Bridge Park – Pier 1

Old Fulton and Furman St
Brooklyn, NY 11201

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