Johanna Alarcón has won the 2026 Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage award, an annual prize given to female photographers addressing social issues with a focus on positivity. Her project, When the Earth Gives Birth, explores Indigenous maternal healthcare in Ecuador, highlighting the work of community midwives in the Kichwa Amazonian Sinchi Warmi community.
Winning Project: When the Earth Gives Birth
Alarcón's photographs document midwives carrying out check-ups in the homes of women, bringing healthcare to remote residents. One image shows a butterfly hovering on a window of the midwifery hospital, emphasizing the natural surroundings far from cities. Another depicts midwife Maria Tapuy massaging Violeta Tapuy, who is expecting her sixth child, illustrating the traditional care provided to Amazonian Indigenous women.
Shortlisted Projects
The award also showcases work from several other photographers. Laura Pannack's The Journey Home documents young people in Cape Flats, South Africa, where daily gang shootings make a simple walk home dangerous. Natela Grigalashvili's The Final Days of Georgian Nomads focuses on families in the Adjara region whose nomadic way of life is threatened by economic hardship and depopulation.
Ana Carolina de Lima's Sempre Vivas captures the Apanhadores de Flores culture in Brazil's Cerrado region, where harvesters time their lives by the flowering season. Sara Swaty's The Body Wasn’t the Problem is a long-term project across Los Angeles, reframing subjects as people living full lives within limiting systems. Ranita Roy examines the water crisis of the Kosi River in The Withering Vein, showing how communities respond.
Birte Kaufmann revisits an Irish travelling community in The Travellers: Next Generation, moving beyond stereotypes to focus on family and identity. Ginevra Bonina's Out for Blood explores menstruation and period poverty in Indian culture. Lea Greub looks at gay life in Marseille and Berlin in De la gare à la mer, examining how people from migrant backgrounds shape their lives in cosmopolitan cities. Valeria Luongo's Among Flowing Waters documents environmental transformations in Cholula, Mexico, where water scarcity and urban expansion displace communities.
Impact and Significance
The Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage award, now in its 2026 edition, continues to highlight female photographers who address social issues with a constructive perspective. According to the organizers, the prize aims to support women in documentary photography and bring attention to underreported stories globally.
