Nicole Tung Receives 2026 IWMF Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award

U.S. photojournalist wins prize after honorable mentions in 2025 and 2017

WASHINGTON, July 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) today announced Nicole Tung as the winner of the organization's 12^th annual Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award. Tung is a veteran photojournalist whose work documents communities impacted by war and its aftermath, particularly across the Middle East. The Anja Award was created in 2014 to honor the life and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning German Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus, who was killed while reporting in Afghanistan.

Tung's winning submission narrates the human cost of war across 13 years in Syria and Ukraine, demonstrating the impact of violence on communities under continual assault. Documenting extreme destruction, mounting loss of life, and growing refugee communities, her work details how conflict tears apart bodies, families and communities. Following Tung's honorable mentions in 2025 and 2017, this year marks the third time Tung has been recognized through the Anja Awards – a record for a single photojournalist.

"What the IWMF continues to see in Nicole's courageous work – and what the judges of the Anja Award recognized – is a tenacity to return, again and again, to the frontlines of suffering at the hands of the world's most violent forces," said Elisa Lees Muñoz, President of the IWMF. "Like Anja, Nicole shows us that staying with people who cannot escape war ensures their stories won't disappear." 

"I am honored, humbled, and proud to be this year's award recipient; being able to follow in Anja's footsteps means the world to me," said Tung, from Istanbul. "Photojournalism requires passion, toil, and a deep faith that documentation will have impact, but it is never done alone. I am deeply appreciative of the IWMF for continuing to support the belief that all voices need to be heard."

Alongside Tung, this year's honorable mentions are Georgian photojournalist Daro Sulakauri, whose work combines investigative reporting and visual storytelling to examine social injustice and the lasting impact of conflict and occupation, and Viviana Peretti, a Bogotá-based Italian documentary photographer working across analogue and digital media. Sulakauri's multi-year submission, "Chasing Shadows," captures how hidden crimes in Georgia – including stolen babies and illegal adoptions – reverberate through identity, memory, and time. In "Limbo," documented across more than a decade, Peretti demonstrates how forced disappearance in Colombia continues to wound families and nations. Like Tung, both women explore violence and absence – what was taken, what remains unresolved, and what must not be forgotten.

This year's Anja Award jury was chaired by Whitney Johnson Latorre and included renowned industry editors and photojournalists Corinne Dufka, Brent Lewis, Enric Martí, Benjamin Snyder, Sandra Stevenson, and Bernadette Tuazon, who reviewed 133 submissions from 49 countries.

Following selection, the jury issued the following statement: "This year's honorees document the unrelenting grief of violence both on the frontlines and in the ensuing decades. Their work affirms that neither war nor time can, or should, erase a story. Like Anja, the work of Nicole, Daro, and Viviana is not extractive or episodic – each journalist confronts unbearable realities with courage, building trust with local communities and telling stories with nuance, depth, and grace. We congratulate these women for their formidable work bearing witness under often extreme circumstances."

Anja Niedringhaus was a recipient of the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award in 2005. The Anja Award winner's $20,000 prize is made possible by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Honorees' images and captions, biographies, and headshots are available for media use with proper attribution; to inquire further, please contact Charlotte Fox ([email protected]).

Courage in Photojournalism Award Winner

Photojournalist Nicole Tung is an American citizen born and raised in Hong Kong. She graduated from New York University with a double major in journalism and history.

Based in Istanbul, Turkey, Tung's work often explores those most affected by conflict and the consequences of war across Asia and the Middle East. After covering the conflicts in Libya and Syria extensively from 2011, in 2014, she documented the lives of Native American war veterans in the United States, as well as former child soldiers in the DR Congo, the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and the refugee crisis in Europe.

Tung currently freelances for international publications and NGOs, primarily covering the Middle East. She has reported for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harper's Magazine, NPR, Vanity Fair, Le Monde, Vogue Magazine, The Sunday Times, and many other outlets. Tung has received awards and recognition from The Carmignac Foundation, The International Women's Media Foundation, ONA, Pictures of the Year International, Visa Pour l'Image, and more.

She was a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Breaking News Photography as part of a team for her work in Ukraine for The New York Times.

Instagram: @nicoletung

Courage in Photojournalism Award Honorable Mentions

Daro Sulakauri is a photojournalist and visual artist whose work explores the complex social and political realities of the Caucasus region. A graduate of the International Center of Photography in New York, where she studied through the John & Marie Phillips Scholarship and the ICP Director's Fund, she gained early recognition for her documentation of Chechen refugees in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, receiving the Young Photographers in the Caucasus Award from Magnum Photos.

Sulakauri's work focuses on underreported and often taboo social and human rights issues, including mineworkers, ethnic minorities, early marriage in Georgia – which contributed to public awareness and legal reform – and the country's ongoing stolen babies investigation, which has documented illegal adoption schemes. Her work has been recognized with the EU Prize for Journalism, LensCulture Visual Storytelling Award, Françoise Demulder Grant (Visa pour l'Image), Alexia Foundation Award of Excellence, Hansel Mieth Prize, and by Zeit Magazine. She is a Catchlight Global Fellow and the first Georgian TED Fellow.

Sulakauri is the creator of shifting-borders.com, a trilingual multimedia platform documenting life along South Ossetia's occupation line through photography, video, maps, and personal testimony. Her work includes field visits along the occupation line, often accompanying residents on crossings toward the Russian-occupied territory. It has been published in The New York Times, Reuters, National Geographic, Zeit Magazine, and Stern Crime, among others.

Instagram: @darosulakauri

Viviana Peretti is an Italian photographer who covers marginalized communities and human rights violations. In 2000, she graduated with a degree in literature from the University of Rome and completed a master's degree in journalism in Colombia. In 2010, Peretti completed the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism program at the International Center of Photography in New York while reporting for The New York Times.

In 2013, Peretti was an Artist-in-Residence at L'École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (ENSP) in Arles, France. In 2014, she was named Photographer of the Year at the Sony World Photography Awards in the Arts & Culture category and received an American Photography 30 award. In 2015, Peretti was a Camargo Foundation Fellow in France and in 2017, was a Bogliasco Center Fellow in Italy. In 2021, Peretti was an E.CO Residency Fellow at Baudó in Colombia. In 2022, Peretti received an Honorable Mention from the World Press Photo Foundation and, two years later, was a finalist for The Aftermath Project with her project Limbo. In 2024, Limbo won the Women Photograph Grant and the Italian Council 13.

Peretti's work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, the MACRO Museum, the Museo Archivo de la Fotografía, and the Centre of Memory, Peace and Reconciliation, among other sites.

Peretti's photographs have been published by international media outlets including The New York Times, Newsweek, BBC, CNN, Vice, and Granta.

Instagram: @vivianaperetti and @vivianaperetti_analogue

About the International Women's Media Foundation

The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) is the only global organization built to serve the holistic needs of women and nonbinary journalists. We are a bold and inclusive organization that supports journalists where they are with awards, reporting opportunities, fellowships, grants, safety training, and emergency aid. As one of the largest supporters of women-produced journalism, our transformative work strengthens equal opportunity and press freedom worldwide. Follow the IWMF on X/Twitter at @IWMF, on Facebook at @IWMFPage, on Instagram at @TheIWMF and on TikTok at @theiwmf.

SOURCE The International Women's Media Foundation