Zana Briski

Zana Briski [1] is an American artist (photographer, filmmaker) and activist.

Her documentary film, Born into Brothels, was the winner of the Best Documentary Feature at the 77th Academy Awards in 2005.[2] After earning a master's degree at the University of Cambridge, Briski studied documentary photography at International Center of Photography in New York. In 1995 she made her first trip to India, producing a story on female infanticide. In 1997 Briski returned to India and began her project on the prostitutes of Calcutta's red light district, which led to her work with the children of prostitutes. Briski has won numerous awards and fellowships including George Soros' Open Society Institute Fellowship, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, the Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism and first prize at the World Press Photo Foundation Competition. Briski and co-director Ross Kauffman were awarded grants from the Sundance Institute, the Jerome Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts for Born into Brothels. Briski is also the founder of non-profit organisation Kids With Cameras[3].