Earlier this year, the New York–based photography foundation Aperture partnered with Google on a special (and urgently necessary) new initiative. Devised to provide a “dedicated financial commitment” to creatives in the wake of COVID-19, the Creator Labs Photo Fund was announced in July with a nationwide open call, inviting photographers and lens-based artists aged 18 and older to apply for a $5,000 award. (Creator Labs, an arts incubator program for photographers, filmmakers, and YouTubers, was launched by Google and the creative agency SN37 in 2019.)
Now, Aperture has announced the fund’s 20 winners, aged 21 to 46 and based all across the country. Their imagery—which formally runs the gamut from self-portraiture and film to still-life and landscape photography—deals with themes of “identity and personhood as they relate to community, family and heritage,” according to the foundation. “Aperture’s team of editors has selected a dynamic and diverse group of photographers, whose talent, vision, and promise are truly inspiring,” Aperture creative director Lesley A. Martin tells Vogue. “Their work covers an exciting range, from visionary portraiture and interventions into personal archives, to incisive critiques of queer, Latinx, and Black experience in the U.S. We all communicate with images today—and we encourage all photographers to continue their practice, ensuring a more rigorous, more expansive range of expressions in the field. Together, Aperture and Google are proud to offer these 20 photographers our support, which we hope will be meaningful to their work and careers.”
Scroll through the Creator Labs Photo Fund finalists’ brilliantly varied work in the gallery below.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist1/20Adraint Bereal, New York
Untitled, 2020, from The Black Yearbook (2020)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist4/20Aaron Turner, Arkansas
Untitled (self, extended), 2020, from Black Alchemy Vol. 3 (2019–ongoing); Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC- USZ62-116617
Photo: Courtesy of the artist6/20Giancarlo Montes Santangelo, Maryland
“Young banana plants, growing prospects of a country,” 2021, from Untitled (2021)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist7/20Jade Thiraswas, Louisiana
Portrait of Eh Sun at 14 years old, Rochester, New York, 2018, from Young Cash Karen (2018)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist8/20Allie Tsubota, Massachusetts
Untitled (Gila River), 2021, from This Brilliant Flash of Light (2021)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist9/20Matt Eich, Virginia
Untitled, Charlottesville, Virginia, 2020, from Bird Song Over Black Water (2015–ongoing)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist10/20Maximilian Thuemler, New York
Self-Portrait Toppled Over Out Back, Glynn County, Georgia, 2020, from Born From the Limb (2021–ongoing)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist11/20Jasmine Veronica, Florida
Jump Rope, 2021, from Guide to a Healthy Body (2021)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist12/20Sophie Lopez, Illinois
At times I forget my mother has existed in the minds of others , 2021, from Productions of Chimera (2021)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist13/20Priya Suresh Kambli, Missouri
Kambli Family (Studio Portrait) & Which one is different, 2019, from Buttons for Eyes (2021)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist14/20Sydney Mieko King, Connecticut
Redcliff St., 2020, from Entanglement (2020)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist15/20Tommy Kha, New York
Assemblies I (or Me Crying in Three Takes), 2020, from Facades (2021)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist16/20Jasmine Clarke, New York
Olivia, Looking, 2018, from Shadow of the Palm (2018–ongoing)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist19/20Naomieh Jovin, Pennsylvania
The Gathering, 2021, from Gwo Fanm (2019–ongoing)
Photo: Courtesy of the artist20/20Bryan Thomas, New York
Mexico Beach, 2019, from The Sea in the Darkness Calls (2015–ongoing)
