Walter Astrada won the 2009 $15,000 Alexia Foundation professional grant for his proposal to document violence against women in India. Astrada found that persistence pays. It is the fourth year in a row he has applied for the Alexia grant.

Astrada, born in Argentina in 1974, is a freelancer based in Kampala, Uganda, and is a stringer for Agence France-Presse. In 1996 he started his career as staff photographer in La Nacion newspaper (Argentina). In 1999 he traveled in Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Peru developing a personal project on "Faith."

In September 1999 he joined The Associated Press in Bolivia and later in Argentina. From 2000 to 2002 he worked for the Associated Press in Paraguay. During 2003 he worked as a freelancer in Buenos Aires and Madrid, then at the end of 2003 he rejoined the Associated Press based in the Dominican Republic.

From March 2005 until March 2006 he worked as a freelancer for Agence France Presse in the Dominican Republic and was represented and distributed by World Picture News. From March 2006 until December 2007 he was a freelancer in Spain.

There were 202 applications that, after four rounds, the judges narrowed down to five finalists. After much deliberation, Astrada’s proposal was finally chosen for the grant. The other four finalists, in no particular order are:

Oleg Klimov, born in Russia in 1964, majored in astrophysics at Kazan University. He started to work as a photojournalist in 1989. Since 1991 he has been a freelance photographer for international newspapers and magazines such as NRC-Handelsblad, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, The Independent, The Guardian and agencies AFP, Sigma and Panos pictures.

Saiful Huq Omi, born in Bangladesh in 1980, graduated from Pathshala South Asian Institute of Photography and became a photographer in 2005. He is represented by Polaris Images. His works have been published in Newsweek, Foto File USA, New Internationalist, Time Magazine, The Guardian, and Asian Photography and in the Arab News. He has lectured and presented his works at The London School of Economics, Rochester Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Columbia University and in many other universities.

Aaron Huey was also an Alexia finalist last year in the 2008 competition! He is a freelance photographer based in Seattle. In 2002 Huey walked 3,349 miles across America with his dog which resulted in his first published work. He now shoots for National Geographic, Harper’s, Smithsonian, Time, Newsweek, etc. Photo District News named him one of the top 30 emerging photographers in the world in 2007. He graduated from University of Denver with a fine arts degree in 1999.

Louie Palu is a freelance photographer based in Washington, D.C. He is represented by ZUMA Press. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1991, then interned with photographer Mary Ellen Mark in New York. He later returned to Toronto and began working as a photojournalist for newspapers and magazines, including working as a staff photographer for six years at Canada's National Newspaper, The Globe And Mail. In 1991 he began what would result in 12-years of field-work documenting the lives of miners which became Cage Call: Life and Death in the Hard Rock Mining Belt, which won the Critical Mass Book Award in 2005.

The judging was done at Syracuse University on Feb. 21, 2009. The judges were Sherman Williams, AME/Visuals at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Bob Houlihan, director of photography at the Detroit News; and Aphrodite Tsairis, who with her husband Peter, created the Alexia Foundation 20 years ago. (See remarks Aphrodite Tsairis made at the end of the judging.)

Walter Astrada’s portfolio