The Open Society Institute has announced $950,000 in grants for journalists covering issues of racism and inequality related to Hurricane Katrina.

The Katrina Media Fellows grants are part of OSI's mission to strengthen communities in the U.S. and around the world. The agency says it is investing nearly $3 million in Katrina-related support.

OSI, an international organization funded by investor George Soros, is a large supporter of documentary projects.

Among the 31 Katrina grant winners announced, seven directly concern photography:

• Photographer Anthony Barboza of Brooklyn, N.Y., to document, along with the Kamoinge collective of African American photographers, communities of color in Louisiana and Mississippi.


• Photographer Debbie Caffery of Lafayette, La., to document displaced residents, the destruction of the Ninth Ward, and abandoned personal items.


• Photographers Stanley Greene and Kadir van Lohuizen of Paris, France, to document the government response and the damage to New Orleans.


• Writer Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson of New York to create a fictional novel incorporating documentary photos about people affected by the hurricane.


• Photographers Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun of New Orleans to continue a 30-year project documenting African American residents of the Lower Ninth Ward and produce 40 post-flood portraits and 20 oral histories of fellow displaced residents.


• Photographer Joseph Rodriguez and writer Patrice Burke Pascual of Brooklyn, N.Y., to create a multimedia website and exhibition of 25 portraits of individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina.


• Photographer Clarence Williams of Kenner, La., to follow New Orleans from flood to aftermath to rebuilding, focusing on the impact on the racial composition of the city.

Related link

• Open Society Institute

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