Nikon has announced that photographer and visual storyteller Ana Maria Arévalo Gosen has won the Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award 2023 for her photo essay ‘Grandmothers at 30’, a series of portraits which documents the harsh realities of teenage pregnancy in Venezuela and the organisations trying to help them.
The Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award aims to celebrate the work of women photographers whose work addresses social, environmental, economic and cultural issues. The competition is free to enter and is open to female photographers around the world at any stage in their careers who are over 18 and have completed at least one documentary photo essay.
© Ana Maria Arévalo Gosen. Saouri Lugo, 18, says goodbye to her son Heyberth Veliz. Saouri prepares to leave while her mother takes care of the baby in Guatire, Miranda, Venezuela on May 31, 2019. Saouri gave birth at the age of 17. Her mother Carina has ten children and was also a teenage mother.
Ana Maria Arévalo Gosen said about receiving the award: ‘I am deeply grateful for the honour of receiving the Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award 2023… As a Venezuelan, I am deeply motivated to document the solutions implemented by organisations working to prevent teenage pregnancy in my country. The award will help me raise awareness, foster safer environments for sexual and reproductive education, and contribute to a brighter future for Venezuela’s next generation.’
She has also said that following her win she plans on continuing to document these kinds of initiatives to help prevent repeat teenage pregnancies and provide education on sexual and reproductive health.
© Ana Maria Arévalo Gosen. A group of women, some pregnant, some with children, gather for the weekly maternity and postpartum training of the Niña Madre foundation in El Valle, Venezuela, on June 12, 2019. This non-profit foundation has been operating for 30 years. Its focus is to reduce teenage motherhood through education but also to educate those young mothers to be responsible and pass on skills, values, and a different life plan. This foundation tries to incorporate the father and their family. The idea is to create a safe space where they can share experiences, opinions, and fears and ask questions.
Featured image caption: Yetzimar Sanz carries her nine-month-old daughter Adrianyelis as she walks to her mother’s house on March 2, 2020, in Sisipa, El Hatillo municipality, Venezuela. Yetzimar and Adrian separated because Adrian is gay. Yetzimar now lives with her mother and her 14-year-old sister, Yefrany.
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