ZEKE Magazine: Spring 2023.2

ZEKE
THE
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MAGAZINE OF
GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY
Published by Social Documentary Network
Dear ZEKE Readers:
It is always so great to present the winners of the ZEKE Award. Coincidentally
both winners this year are from Italy. Nicola Ókin Frioli is the recipient of the
ZEKE Award for Systemic Change for his project on Indigenous revolt against
extractive industries in Ecuador. And Cinzia Canneri is the recipient of the
ZEKE Award for Documentary Photography for her project on violence against
women, and particularly Tigrayan and Eritrean women fleeing war on both
sides of the border. Congratulations to both! There are also six honorable
mentions who you will find starting on page 26.
As Russia’s destruction of Ukraine continues into its second year, so does
the outpouring of images documenting this horrific war against civilians,
infrastructure, and combatants. In this issue of ZEKE, we are presenting a portfolio
by U.S. photographer Svet Jacqueline, Too Young to Fight, that shines light on the
youngest victims of this senseless war. And to put these photographs in context,
Lauren Walsh, professor at New York University and author of Conversations on
Conflict Photography, has an article Picturing Atrocity: Ukraine, Photojournalism,
and the Question of Evidence that looks at how this outpouring of images by
photojournalists can also be used as evidence of war crimes.
We are also thrilled to be able to present an interview in this issue with Chester
Higgins, a New York Times photographer for more than 40 years and leading
voice in the community of Black photojournalists working to bring a diverse
perspective to our media landscape.
This is our seventeenth issue of ZEKE! With each issue our overriding objective
is to present outstanding documentary photography that we hope educates
and sensitizes our readers to important issues in our world today by using the
language of visual imagery. So much of our intellectual understanding of the
world today is driven by language, which is a much more recent development
in human evolution. Our sight and sensitivity to clues from the visual landscape
have been with us much longer, and we believe these clues give us an
important perspective on our world that we cannot gain by words alone.
Fundamentally this is why we publish ZEKE and is also the foundation behind
the Social Documentary Network.
I hope you as readers agree on the importance of this visual landscape and
will continue to value ZEKE magazine as a vital source of information about our
fragile and forever changing planet and the people, animals and other forms of
life that cohabitate this precious speck in the universe.
Glenn Ruga
Executive Editor
2023 ZEKE Award Jurors
Barbara Ayotte: SDN
Communications Director and
Senior Director of Strategic
Communications at GBH
Greig Cranna: Director,
Bridge Gallery, Cambridge,
Massachusetts
Donny Bajohr: Associate Photo
Editor, Smithsonian magazine
Lisa DuBois: Independent photographer
and curator, SDN Board
member
Anne Farrar: Assistant Managing
Editor, National Geographic
magazine
Avi Gupta: Director of
Photography, U.S. News and
World Report
John Heffernan: President,
Foundation for Systemic Change
Michael Itkoff: Cofounder,
Daylight Books
Danny R. Peralta: Executive
Director, En Foco
Eli Reed: Member of Magnum
Photos and a member of
Magnum’s Board of Directors
Barbara Ayotte
ZEKE SPRING 2023/ 1