Documentary and reportage photography brings together a wide range of skills, including portraiture and street work, and some of the greatest photographers of all time have specialised in this genre.

One of the most prestigious awards in this field is the Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage award, and the winners of this year’s competition have been announced. The award is named after Marilyn Stafford (1925-2023) a celebrated documentary photographer who received AP’s lifetime achievement award in 2019.

Italian photographer Isabella Franceschini is overall winner and recipient of the Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award 2024, for her work ‘The Leap of Fish that Dream of Flying’.

Marilyn Stafford Award winner 1
Workers are engaged in demolishing the last tank in the southern industrial area of the plant. In the background, a 250-meter chimney, Italy’s tallest masonry tower, stands as a structure used to release combustion gases into the atmosphere—an evident source of air, water, and soil pollution for twenty years. Credit: Isabella Franceschini

Her work focuses on the decommissioning of the Polesine Camerini thermoelectric plant, the largest in Italy. Now inactive, it is set to be transformed into an eco-friendly tourist facility. Isabella’s project documents the conflicting environmental challenges of this area since 2015, which humans have both benefited from, through activities such as mussel farming, and also exploited.

Hopefully the revamp of the former power plant will show that there can be a balanced coexistence between humans and nature, paving the way for a future of unexplored and fertile possibilities.

Marilyn Stafford award winner 2
Fishermen engaged in the ‘Fraìma’, the traditional fish harvest that occurs in autumn in the Po Delta valleys (extensive enclosed basins). Fish raised in the valley grow under semi-natural conditions and require meticulous management based on empirical knowledge that has been passed down orally by valley dwellers for generations. Credit: Isabella Franceschini

It also goes to show that inspiration for prize-winning documentary images can be found anywhere. Isabella is a contributor to the Parallelozero photojournalism agency and a Lowepro Ambassador.

The Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award gives an annual prize of £2,500 to a professional woman photographer towards the completion of a documentary photo essay, which addresses an important social, environmental, economic or cultural issue, whether local or global, with a focus on positive solutions. Nikon UK is amongst the sponsors.

See the full list of winners here and check some of the ‘honourable mention’ images below.

Marilyn Stafford award honourable mentions
Fisherwoman Doris Duque, 57, dips her feet in the river that joins the sea in Cuyagua, Venezuela,. Credit: Andrea Hernández Briceño
Macoumba, a professional sportsman, bathes in the sea after a training session on a handbike. In 2002, Macoumba was sent to France by his father to improve his family’s standard of living. He joined the French Foreign Legion but in 2008, an injury left him paralysed. Credit: Jennifer Carlos
Marilyn Stafford Award honourable mentions
Nagbe, 67, from Ivory Coast, eats in her social hotel room where she has been living since 2020. Not having access to a kitchen, she is forced to cook inside the room in harsh conditions. Credit: Lys Arango

Further reading
The best photography competitions to enter
Master fine-art portrait photography