TMC + Kodak announce recipients of film grant!

In the summer of 2009, too much chocolate announced an exciting partnership with Kodak that offered its first-ever film grant program. The grant provides 10 non-represented photographers with the film needed to execute a new or ongoing personal project, to be completed during 2010. This partnership aims to recognize strong project ideas from talented and emerging photographers, allowing them to fully realize a body of work that may not have been achieved otherwise.

Congratulations to the ten recipients of the too much chocolate + Kodak Film Grant:

- Murray Ballard
- Anna Beeke
- Magda Biernat
- Phil Jung
- Collin LaFleche
- Molly Landreth
- Caitlin Price
- Andy Spyra
- Leah Tepper Byrne
- Susan Worsham

10 Winners Chosen from More Than 450 Entries

Jan. 5, 2010 – PORTLAND, Oregon – too much chocolate (TMC), a photo resource site, announced the recipients of the first ever TMC + KODAK film grant today. The grants, comprising each recipients’ choice of film from Kodak’s broad portfolio of professional films, enable 10 talented, emerging photographers to execute a new or ongoing personal project. Grant recipients, all un-represented photographers, will complete their projects throughout 2010 and at the start of 2011, will have them showcased through a variety of online sites, magazines, and gallery shows.

“We were blown away by the talent and ideas among the 454 applicants we received from around the world,” said Jake Stangel, founder of too much chocolate and a photographer. “With these grants, generously made by Eastman Kodak, we’re excited to help provide the tools our grant recipients need in order to bring their project ideas to fruition.”

“Our partnership with TMC on this grant- program stems from a shared thrill of discovering and supporting new photography talent,” said Audrey Jonckheer, director of Worldwide Pro Photographer Relations, Eastman Kodak Company, and one of seven grant judges. “Each winner presented a really compelling project, which we’re excited to see materialize as the year progresses, culminating with the exhibits in 2011.”

TMC + Kodak Film Grant Recipients (two sample images follow their project description):

Murray Ballard (Brighton, UK)
Murray’s project, The Prospect of Immortality, is a photographic investigation into the scientific technology cryonics, the practice of preserving a dead person or animal, by freezing them at extremely low temperatures in the hope that science and technology will be able to revive them, and return them to full health in the future.

Anna Beeke (Brooklyn, NY)
Anna’s project, Amsterdam, New York, is a photographic document of a town in decline, and the life that continues there. It is part topography, part emotional response, and part “portrait of a town” in the classic sense of the photo essay. Much of the project is about physical spaces, occupied and unoccupied:  Beeke explores the contrast between Amsterdam’s living and dead spaces, how its residents relate to the physical space of the city, and how their lives are informed by the landscape in which they carry out their daily rituals.

Magda Biernat (New York, NY)
Magda’s project, The Other in Me, explores the notion of cultural identity and home in a Diaspora. The idea is dictated by the search for a real connection to a place and the definition of Biernat’s own identity, one of a Polish woman living in the United States. With no strong connection to either country and her sense of displacement, Biernat feels forced to search for the place that she can call home.

Phil Jung (Boston, MA)
Phil’s project, Windscreen, revisits the ideals of early automobiles (freedom, hope, exploration and independence–quintessentially American ideals) by exploring the relationship of automobiles and their owners today.

Collin LaFleche (New York, NY)
Collin’s untitled project photographs 14 and 15 year-old freshmen from high schools throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, as they jump into adolescence. A complement to LaFleche’s earlier project on kids in the final years of teenagedom, Right After, he hopes to further pull back those outer layers and instead trace this stage of life through time as it develops over the following few years, as these teens loosen the grip on their childhood innocence.

Molly Landreth (Seattle, WA)
Molly’s project, Embodiment: A Portrait of Queer Life in America, is a comprehensive, multi-media archive to reveal the untold stories of GLBTQ Americans today through large-format color portraits & in-depth video interviews. Traveling to every region of this country, Landreth records and archives the untold story of individuals beyond the stereotypical gay urban centers, while making personal connections and learning about how sexuality, religion, race, class gender identity and geography can affect ones outlook on life, love and community.

Caitlin Price (Washington, DC)
Caitlin’s untitled project will comprise photographs of aging women. These women are the protagonists of the stories about life and death, power and vulnerability, magnificence and uncertainty in the everyday.

Andy Spyra (Hagen, Germany)
Andy’s untitled project is a story about the aftermath of the Bhopal Gas-Disaster, the chemical factory explosion that killed more than more than 20,000 people. The project aims to not only show Bhopal, but to also visualize and transfer a feeling of how it feels to be in a certain place or situation.

Leah Tepper Byrne (New York, NY)
Leah’s project, Still Lives, documents The Children’s Village, a 150-year-old residential treatment center and alternative to incarceration site for more than 200 boys, aged 6 to 21 in upstate New York. Tepper Byrne was drawn to The Children’s Village out of a need to explore what it means to be young and confined, and was struck by the suspension of reality and time that seems to inhabit its borders.

Susan Worsham (Richmond, VA)
Susan’s project, By the Grace of God, is a series about Worsham’s home, the South, that takes her beyond her backyard, following a southern road, and documents places and characters that she uncovers.

Stangel and Jonckheer were joined in the judging by representatives of some of the industry’s most notable organizations, including:
- Marcel Saba, Director of Redux Pictures
- Clinton Cargill, Associate Picture Editor of the New York Times Magazine
- Conor Risch, Features Editor of PDN
- Andy Adams, Editor / Publisher of Flak Photo
- Alison Morley, Chair of ICP’s Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program

too much chocolate is an online blogazine run by photographer Jake Stangel that aims to serve and connect emerging editorial, fine art, and commercial photographers all over the internet. The site focuses on dialogue, support, and exposure within the online photo community, with hope that it transfers into real world relationships and photographic growth for its readers.

Media Contact:

Jake Stangel, 301-938-9143; jakestangel@gmail.com

Colleen Krenzer, 917-826-2100; colleen@intersectcom.com