PDNEWS
ANATOMY OF A SUCCESSFUL GRANT APPLICATION
JON LOWENSTEIN’S 2011
GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIP
© Pete Brook
The Chicago-based photojournalist has won many top
awards, including POYi’s Magazine Photographer of the
Year (2001) and an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship
(2008). Last spring, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship, a
prestigious award for mid-career academics and artists.
Here, he explains how. By David Walker
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Jon Lowenstein’s Long-term proJects “confront
the realms of power, poverty and violence,” he says.
with “shadow Lives UsA,” he explored the struggles
of Latin American immigrants. His ongoing “south
side” project is about life in chicago’s gritty south side
neighborhoods, and the social, economic and political
forces shaping it. John simon guggenheim memorial
foundation jurors take an applicant’s entire career into
consideration, but Lowenstein’s “south side” project
was the focus of his application.
At the time he applied, Lowenstein was at a career
crossroads, considering a teaching job. “But i didn’t really want to do that,” he says. “i wanted to find a way to
finish [the ‘south side’ project].” with encouragement
from photographer peter Lucas, who agreed to write a
recommendation for Lowenstein, he submitted an application for the guggenheim.
“i never thought i would get it,” Lowenstein says,
adding, “You never know what they’re going to support.” the identities of jurors are not disclosed. the
process of deliberation is confidential, so the foundation doesn’t comment on its decisions. the monetary
value of the fellowships, which varies from year to
year, is also unannounced. photographers who have
previously won guggenheim grants, which allow
artists to work independently for a minimum of six
months, include Joel meyerowitz, robert frank and
Diane Arbus.
Lowenstein declined to provide a copy of his grant
application. But he describes it as a three-page explanation of his “south side” project, including his
process, purpose and goals. “i sat down and wrote a
proposal about how i saw the place, and why it’s important to me, and why it’s an important place to
show in a complex and nuanced way.” He wrote the
application on his own, although he often works on his
grant applications with help from his brother, who is
a writer. Along with the application, Lowenstein also
submitted 20 images from the project, and a bio that
ran about two pages long.
“it’s really important that you’re clear, and people
can really understand what you’re trying to do,” he
says. “when you write about the work, you have to
give it some context. that’s a different skill [from
shooting]—describing what you’re doing, and sum-
ming it up into a neat package. “
Lowenstein says he gets frequent questions about
the secret to his grant application success. But he
says there are no secrets, and no tricks. success flows
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from putting in time on your project, and understand-
ing your subject and purpose. “it’s ultimately about
whether you’re doing work you care about, and find
meaningful,” he says. “that’s what needs to be con-
veyed through the writing of the application.”
Having worked on his “south side” project for more
than a decade, Lowenstein certainly has clarity of
purpose. He began photographing the south side as
a staff photographer for cit Y 2000, which aimed to
document chicago at the turn of the millennium. for
that project, the narrative of the south side was more
focused on its drug culture and violence.
Lowenstein says it was a challenge to imagine the
area differently for his own project. “How do you take
this place on without looking only at those elements
[of drugs and violence], while acknowledging that
violence is part of the daily reality of the people liv-
ing here? the layers of time and history and place are
ever present.”
Lowenstein lives on the south side with an ever-
present question in mind—“what does the south
side mean?”—as he has looked at the consequences
of de-industrialization, chicago’s racially charged poli-
tics and boom-and-bust economic cycles. And rather
than observe dispassionately from a distance, he’s col-
laborating with his subjects to tell a more “raw, real,
honest” story. that means he has given his subjects
some say in how they are portrayed. much of the work
has been shot with polaroid film. “i could give polaroids
to the people i was photographing. people are familiar
with it, so i could use it to open up a collaborative con-
versation on the street,” he says.
Lowenstein has also interviewed his subjects about
their lives. some of them are writing about their experience as south side residents, and those narratives
will be part of the final project. “it’s about having this
conversation about the south side,” he says. “By being
involved, you understand the subjects more intimately.
i like to know the people i photograph, and i like knowing the place on a visceral level.”
for his guggenheim application, Lowenstein says he
described his process, and all the work he’s done on the
project so far. with the photography mostly finished,
he also described the work that remains to be done,
which includes shooting video, conducting interviews,
and writing, with a plan to find a book publisher and
launch an interactive web site. (while he’s promoted
other work, he hasn’t sought much exposure yet for
his “south side” project, Lowenstein says.)
