Scott Dalton Wins Smith Documentary Prize

Houston, Texas photographer Scott Dalton has been named the recipient of the Michael P.Smith Grant for Documentary Photography, awarded annually by the New Orleans Photo Alliance.

The Juror was Tom Rankin, Director of Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies.

Scott's winning project is entitled So Close, So Far: Daily Life and Cartel Violence in Ciudad Juáre. Scott addresses in this project conditions of life an a Mexican border city which is in the midst of a vicious cartel drug war and averages over 3,000 murders a year, making it one of the most dangerous cities on earth.

Tom Rankin says of Scott's work that it suggests "the sense of loss that relentless violence so firmly delivers.and . . . raises unnerving questions about the uncertain and precarious future . . . without sensationalism or stereotypes--his is a fresh, original, and probing engagement with individuals and the social landscape rendered with a transformative radiance."