Stop Time to See

$30K W. Eugene Smith Grant Awarded to Darcy Padilla 

PDN October 21, 2010
by Conor Risch

American photographer Darcy Padilla received the 2010 W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography for “The Julie Project,” which examines AIDS, poverty and drug addiction in America. Padilla’s essay focuses on the life of Julie Baird, a subject she met in San Francisco in 1993 and photographed for 18 years.

Padilla was honored during a reception at the Asia Society in New York City.

Ann Curry, a news anchor and contributor to NBC’s Today and Dateline gave a keynote address in which she remarked on the unique ability of still images to “stop time so [viewer’s] minds can fully take in what they are seeing,” which she contrasted with the speed that makes the moving image difficult for viewers to digest. Curry encouraged the audience of photojournalists and photography professionals saying that, “human empathy is growing” in the world as a result of the legacy of documentary image making.

In her remarks Padilla recalled that when she told Baird of the honor, her subject and friend of 18 years asked sarcastically, “What took so long?” Baird died just days after Padilla learned of the grant; she was 36. Padilla said she was “thankful that [Baird] was open to me.”

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