W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and the Nikon Spirit Initiative announced Trent Parke the overall winner of the annual contest. Parke documented daily life in his homeland, Australia. Read about it here.

Editor & Publisher has announced that this image by Jerome Delay, a photojournalist for the Associated Press, has won the Grand Prize for this year's Photo of the Year. See other winners here. Read about the contest here.

Via Melissa Lyttle at www.aphotoaday.org

From the folks who brought us the Day in the Life series (Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen) here is a recent project documentinglife in America.

I recently (as of two minutes ago) heard about this opportunity. Thanks to Jim MacMillan and the NPPA-L (the National Press Photographers Association's list serv) for spreading the word.

Please direct your enquiries about this scholarship to the appropriate folks. I am just a messenger.

$5,000 for your education!

The Ron Patel Scholarship Fund is now accepting applications for 2004. This year, the $5,000 scholarship will be awarded to a photojournalism student to advance his or her graduate or undergraduate education, according to fund president Mary Patel. Deadline is December 1, 2003.

Ron Patel was the renowned editor of the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and Mary Patel's husband, until his death on Jan. 7, 2000.

There are no age restrictions on this scholarship. The $5,000 check will made out to the school and the student so the winner must either be in school or about to begin.

The Philadelphia Conference is assisting with outreach and details.
Complete details are availabe online at:

http://www.philadelphiaconference.org/scholarship

Questions may be directed to: scholarship@philadelphiaconference.org

GOVT plans to allow aerial photography Times of India, India UDAIPUR:

“As part of its efforts to do away with archaic and irrelevant regulations, the government is planning to repeal the law preventing aerial photography.”

Airports today. Temples tomorrow. One can only hope. I remember being chastised for making images at a temple just outside of Chennai. The guy who came up to me and asked me to put my cameras away was the official “bell-ringer” of the temple. Not your garden variety cop. An argument was inevitable as the man gave no rationale for his extra-curricular police activity. I can understand that the temple sanctum is sacrosanct but can anyone tell me why photography outside the main sanctum is such a big national risk? Anyone else have similar experiences?