The June 2011 National Geographic features Stephanie Sinclair’s photos that she produced with the 2008 Alexia professional grant. Sinclair has been working on the story about child brides for over 4 years.
Family members and guests dance before the wedding of three young girls Radha, 15, Gora, 13, and Rajni, 5, to their young grooms Aleen, Giniaj, and Kaushal. The three couples - three sisters married to three brothers - were married on the Hindu holy day of Akshaya Tritiya, called Akha Teej in North India.
Sinclair wrote to Peter and Aphrodite Tsairis, the Alexia Foundation creators announcing the publication of her work:
“It is with great relief and pleasure to announce that the story has finally come out! It is in the June edition of National Geographic, which is already starting to be mailed to their 4 million subscribers, and will be on stands at the end of the month. It is also being syndicated in almost all of their international editions!
“It is with great relief and pleasure to announce that the story has finally come out!”
“I am relieved and excited and hope you like the final results. As we all know, they were a long time in the making. We are also now working on a multimedia piece that it being paid for by the Pulitzer Center that will be ready in about a week or two.
“Many thanks for all of your continued support.”
See the photos in National Geographic at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/child-brides/sinclair-photography
You can also read the article at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/child-brides/gorney-text
Stephanie’s original proposal to the Alexia Foundation and the images she submitted with the proposal can be seen on the Alexia Website here.
