Johanna Alarcón has been named the winner of the 2026 Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award, an annual prize that honors female photographers addressing social issues with a focus on positivity. Her project, When the Earth Gives Birth, explores Indigenous maternal healthcare in Ecuador, highlighting the work of community midwives in the Kichwa Amazonian Sinchi Warmi community.
Winner's Project: When the Earth Gives Birth
Alarcón's series documents midwives conducting check-ups in the homes of pregnant women, bringing healthcare directly to residents in remote Amazonian areas. The images show a butterfly hovering on a window of the midwifery hospital, emphasizing the natural surroundings, and midwife Maria Tapuy massaging Violeta Tapuy, who is expecting her sixth child. Alarcón captures how these communities live far from cities, relying on traditional practices.
Shortlisted Photographers and Projects
The award also features a shortlist of nine other photographers, each addressing social issues through their lens. Natela Grigalashvili's The Final Days of Georgian Nomads focuses on families in the Adjara region of Georgia, whose nomadic way of life is threatened by economic hardship and depopulation. Laura Pannack's The Journey Home documents young people in Cape Flats, South Africa, where daily gang shootings make a simple walk home dangerous.
Ana Carolina de Lima's Sempre Vivas captures the Apanhadores de Flores culture in Brazil's Cerrado region, where flower harvesting dictates the rhythm of life. Sara Swaty's The Body Wasn’t the Problem is a long-term documentary across Los Angeles, reframing subjects as people living full lives within limiting systems.
Ranita Roy examines the water crisis of the Kosi River in The Withering Vein: Kosi’s Water and Almora’s Survival, showing how communities respond. Birte Kaufmann revisits an Irish travelling community in The Travellers: Next Generation, moving beyond stereotypes to focus on family and identity. Ginevra Bonina's Out for Blood explores period poverty in Indian culture, surrounded by shame and stigma.
Lea Greub looks at gay life in Marseille and Berlin in De la gare à la mer, examining how people from migrant backgrounds shape their lives in cosmopolitan cities. Valeria Luongo's Among Flowing Waters documents environmental transformations in the Cholula region of Puebla, Mexico, where water scarcity and urban expansion displace communities.
Impact and Recognition
The Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award, established to support female photographers, emphasizes stories that offer a positive perspective on social issues. Alarcón's work brings attention to Indigenous maternal healthcare, a critical topic in regions with limited access to medical facilities. According to the award organizers, the prize aims to highlight photography that inspires change and celebrates resilience.
