Leonie Purchas

The second F Award has been awarded to British photographer Leonie Purchas for her essay "In the Shadow of Things," a look at her family.

Purchas will receive a EUR 20,000 ($31,700) prize. "Her images genuinely portray this fair, intimate and harsh story of her close relatives, which can tell the story of the whole human family," wrote the F Award judges.

The F Award, which describes itself as an international award for concerned photography, is sponsored by two Italian photography organizations: Fabrica, the Benetton Research Centre on Communication, and Forma, International Center of Photography, a joint initiative of Fondazione Corriere della Sera and Contrasto.

Also announced was the F25 Award, which recognizes a photographer under the age of 25. The award went to Abdul Munem Wasif of Bangladesh for the essay "Old Dakha." Wasif will be awarded a one-year scholarship in Fabrica's
photography department.

This year the F Awards issued a "special mention" to photographers Jonas Bendiksen of Norway and Norma Rossetti of Italy.

The jury was chaired by photographer Reza Deghati and included judges Elisabeth Biondi, visuals editor of The New Yorker, Enrico Bossan, editorial director of Colors magazine, Giovanna Calvenzi, photo editor of Sportweek Milan, Julien Frydman, director of Magnum Photos Bureau, Paris, Roberto Koch, director of Contrasto, Rome, and Roger Tooth, director of photography of The Guardian, London.

The F Award received 143 entries this year from 40 countries, plus 15 entries for the F25 Award.

The first F Award, given out in 2006, went to photojournalist Jessica Dimmock.
in http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003829456