Carolyn Drake is an award-winning documentary photographer. Her work has been supported through grants from the Fulbright Scholar Program and National Geographic and honored by UNICEF, the National Press Photographers Association, and the Society of News Design.She was chosen as one of Photo District News’s 30 Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2006 and as one of the Magenta Foundation’s emerging photographers in 2007.
In 2008 she won the POYI Feature Picture Story First Place, Feature Picture Award of Excellence; the World Press Photo Second Place Daily Life Stories and the Lange Taylor Prize. In 2009 Carolyn won the Pulitzer Center Grant and was finalist at the Santa Fe Prize. In 2010 POYI Science/Natural History Story First Place and the Guggenheim Fellowship.
Drake graduated with honors from Brown University in 1994 with a degree in American studies and media/culture. She studied photography at the International Center of Photography from 2001-2002 and subsequently pursued a master’s degree in visual communication at Ohio University. Prior to becoming a photographer, she worked in New York City as a producer, interactive designer, and writer for award-winning multimedia projects.
WILD PIGEON
by Carolyn Drake. China, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Dec 2007 – Dec 2010. Uighurs are Muslim, speak a Turkic language closely related to Uzbek, and live primarily in rural, subsistence communities. About 10 million Uighurs live in ChinaÕs Xinjiang Uighur … Continue reading
UZBEKISTAN COTTON HARVEST
by Carolyn Drake. Uzbekistan. 2010. Uzbekistan is the third largest exporter of cotton in the world, but the use of child labor, and excessive use of pesticides and water for irrigation have left the country with a poor human rights … Continue reading
COAL TOWN
by Carolyn Drake. Ukraine. 2006. The Donetsk coal basin was an engine of the Soviet economy from the 1920s on. Today, coal meets one quarter of Ukraine’s energy needs, but the industry has been ridden with problems for decades. The … Continue reading
VOLHYN VILLAGERS
by Carolyn Drake. Volhynia, Ukraine. 2006. A region in the northwest corner of present day Ukraine, Volhynia is one of the oldest and most rural Slavic settlements in Europe. Bordered to Belarus in the North and Poland to the West, … Continue reading
ORPHAN GIRLS
by Carolyn Drake. Ukraine. May 2006. Girl in an orphan’s institute. There are over 100,000 children residing in government institutions in Ukraine today. The majority of them are social orphans, children whose parents are unavailable due to drug and alcohol … Continue reading