Meridith Kohut Wins Chris Hondros Award for Venezuela Coverage
Meridith Kohut, who has been documenting Venezuela’s downward spiral for The New York Times, has won the fifth annual Getty Images and Chris Hondros Fund Award. The award was created in honor of Mr. Hondros, who was killed in Libya in April 2011 along with the photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington.
When Ms. Kohut moved to Venezuela in 2008, she chronicled the rise of the socialist revolution. Her coverage of Venezuela’s economic decline has already won several prizes this year, including the Overseas Press Club’s feature award and a George Polk award, which she shared with the Times correspondent Nicholas Casey.
But the Hondros award carries special significance for Ms. Kohut, because he was one of the mentors who shaped her career. In 2007, when Ms. Kohut was 24, Mr. Hondros was her team leader at the Eddie Adams photography workshop in upstate New York. His advice and guidance led her to move to Venezuela and start freelancing for The New York Times. He stayed in touch with her until the end, sending her an encouraging email a few days before he died in Misurata.
“Even though I was literally a nobody in the photo scene, fresh out of school with no experience, Chris kept in touch after the workshop and he continued to mentor and help get me through my first few years in Venezuela when I was just getting started and very much struggling to figure everything out,” she later wrote.