The Howard Chapnick Legacy

This event is free for students with ID and Aperture Members at the $50 level and above.

As part of the W. Eugene Smith Talks, a series of collaborations between the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and Aperture Foundation, this special evening will honor Howard Chapnick (1922–1996), a legend of photography, long-time head of the Black Star Agency, and author of The Truth Needs No Ally: Inside Photojournalism.

The evening will be hosted by Michael Itkoff of Daylight Books, a 2006 recipient of the Smith Fund’s Howard Chapnick Grant. Past Chapnick grantees Marie Arago, Ryan Libre, Liza Faktor, and Richard Steven Street will share some insight on their projects, with additional remarks by Smith Fund board members John Morris and Rich Clarkson, and trustees Aaron Schindler and Phil Block.

Howard Chapnick founded the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, which awards grants for projects in humanistic photography, in 1979, with colleagues John Morris and Jim Hughes. Shortly after his death, the Smith Fund announced a new award in Chapnick’s name: a $5,000 grant to encourage and support leadership in fields ancillary to photojournalism. To this day, the grant has been awarded to many small organizations and individuals providing necessary funds at critical moments.

For more information about the Howard Chapnick Grant, visit smithfund.org.

Image: Marie Arago courtesy FotoKonbit. Joachim Allande, age 13, is a member of a group of young photographers that FotoKonbit has been working with since 2013 in Cap Haitian. Recipient of the 2013 Howard Chapnick Grant, FotoKonbit is a non-profit organization that provides photography workshops to Haitian youth and adults.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the board and Members of Aperture Foundation.