Dedicated to helping professional and student photographers produce photographs
that promote world peace and cultural understanding.


The 2004 Alexia Competition Winners

Roger Lemoyne
$15,000 professional grant winner.
Read his proposal.
View his portfolio.

Montreal-based freelance photographer Roger Lemoyne's work in photojournalism began with coverage of the crisis in the Horn of Africa in 1991 and coverage of conflicts in Bosnia in 1994-95. He has worked primarily on international issues since then and photographed in over fifty countries world-wide including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Albania, Romania, Cuba, Kosovo, Vietnam, Indonesia, Eritrea, India, Kashmir, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Iraq as well as covering stories in the US and Canada. He joined Gamma-Liaison in 1995. He is represented by Redux Pictures.

Judges' Special Recognition

Francesco Zizola
$7,500 Judges Special Recognition
Read his proposal.
View his portfolio.

Rome based freelance photographer Francesco Zizola is a Magnum Nominee since 2001. Before that he was a member of the Contrasto Agency in Rome. He has covered international news for major Italian and international newspapers and magazines including Panorama, Epoca, Il Venerdi, Newsweek, Time, Stern and Figaro, and was a commercial photographer from 1982-1986. Zizola finished in the top five during last year's professional Alexia competition.

This is the only time the Alexia Foundation has given a professional Special Recognition Award. The judges all agreed that Lemoyne and Zizola were the top two applicants, but were split on the order. The judges and the Alexia Foundation sponsors agreed that Zizola's story proposal and photographs were compelling and deserved an award.

Lemoyne and Zizola were selected from 186 professional applicants from around the world. The final four included Marcus Bleasdale, freelance photographer based in London, and Victor Cobo, San Jose Mercury News staff photojournalist.

The judging was done at Syracuse University on Feb. 28, 2004. Judges were: Bob Gilka, former National Geographic director of photography and adjunct professor of photojournalism and picture editing at Syracuse University; Susan Smith, assistant director of photography at National Geographic; and Mary Anne Golon, Time Magazine picture editor.

Marie Arago
First place student scholarship winner.
Read her proposal.
View her portfolio.

Marie Arago is a student in the International Center of Photography's Documentary and Photojournalism program. She is a graduate of the San Francisco Academy of Art College film department. She won a $9,000 scholarship to study photojournalism at the Syracuse University London Centre and a $1,000 grant to produce her picture story. Arago has studied photography in Cuba with the Maine Photography Workshops.

Second place student winner is Mark Murrmann, a UC Berkeley journalism graduate student (see proposal). The second place award is a $6,000 scholarship and a grant of $500. Murrmann graduated from Indiana University with a journalism degree in 1997.

Award of Excellence winners are Andres Gonzalez, a photojournalism graduate student at Ohio University (see proposal) and Lisa Hornstein, a photojournalism senior at the University of Montana (see proposal). She has been a summer intern at The Montana Standard, Butte, Montana.

Each Award of Excellence winner receives a $500 cash grant and a $1600 scholarship.

33 students from four countries applied to the competition this year.

Each student winner receives a scholarship that pays part of tuition, fees and living expenses to study photojournalism in London in the fall semester at the Syracuse University London Centre and a cash grant to help produce their proposed story.

The judging was done at Syracuse University on Feb. 28, 2004. Judges were: Bob Gilka, former National Geographic director of photography and adjunct professor of photojournalism and picture editing at Syracuse University; Susan Smith, assistant director of photography at National Geographic; and Mary Anne Golon, Time Magazine picture editor.



"We have the desire to give voice to injustice, to give voice to history, to give voice to cultural differences so as to promote understanding. The road is arduous, the road is never ending but we must maintain the commitment to travel that road undaunted."

Aphrodite Tsairis, mother of Alexia Tsairis, made these remarks to the students at the 2003 competition judging. She and her husband Peter Tsairis are creators and sponsors of The Alexia Foundation for World Peace. Read her complete text.