French photographer Véronique de Viguerie has become the sixth woman to win the Canon Female Photojournalist Award, for her project on Communist Militiawomen in Nepal.
The award, which includes a Canon grant of ?8000, will be presented by the French Association of Women Journalists (AFJ) at the 18th International Festival of Photojournalism Visa pour l?Image in Perpignan, France, on the 9th September.
The Canon Female Photojournalist Award was set up in 2001 by the AFJ and Guy Bourreau, Marketing Director of Canon Communication & Image in France. It aims to support and highlight the work of female photographers around the world.
?With women making up only 11% of the world?s photojournalists, the original objective of the award was to address the under-representation of women in this field,? explained Bourreau. ?Now in its sixth year, the award has also proven to be a valuable way to discover new talent.?
Véronique de Viguerie studied photography in England before becoming a freelance photojournalist in 2004. Her work has included reports from Pakistan and Afghanistan, a country she first visited for a newspaper assignment in 2003. Véronique’s work has been published in Newsweek, The New York Times, LIFE, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Le Monde and Libération.
The ?8000 grant de Viguerie received from Canon enables her to pursue a new photography project ? during the coming year she will spend time living with an all-female division of the People?s Liberation Army in Nepal, following their everyday routine and training as they fight to change their political situation. De Viguerie will be given the opportunity to present her completed project at next year?s Visa pour l?Image.

Image: © Veronique de Viguerie