412 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 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. 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. Now in its sixth year, the award has also proven to be a valuable way to discover new talent. Véronique de Viguerie is 28 years old. French by birth, she studied photography in England before becoming a freelance photojournalist in 2004. Her work includes reports from Pakistan, and a number of in-depth reports on Afghanistan, a country she first visited for a newspaper assignment in 2003. In 2005 she narrowly escaped death in a suicide bombing on a Kabul café - the man sitting next to her was killed outright. Her 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 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. Source: Association des Femmes Journalistes. 1 2006-08-05T22:11:04Z 0 2008-03-12T12:54:46Z false 7459 false 4866 2006-08-05T22:15:00Z Antwerp true false v_ronique_de_viguerie_wins_canon_female_photojournalist_award 1 2008-03-12T12:54:46Z 4866