Annie Flanagan, a photographer based between New Orleans and Vermont, has won the Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQ+ Photographers, an annual award that was relaunched last year by Queer|Art and the Robert Giard Foundation. The $10,000 prize will support Flanagan’s work documenting rural America from a queer perspective. Clifford Prince King, whose work focuses on gay Black male domestic life, will receive a new $5,000 cash grant as runner-up. The judges for this year’s contest included Kimberly Drew, Guadalupe Rosales, Elle Peréz, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and Efrem Zelony-Mindell.

A journalist who shoots on assignment for publications such as the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, and the Washington Post, Flanagan plans to use the grant to develop their practice outside of editorial projects. “This award will allow me to get lost in this work,” Flanagan said. “I am eager to contribute to a queer archive in the tradition of Robert Giard, to make work dedicated to the queer environments and persons I love and those I have yet to meet.” King said that the grant will allow him to push “beyond certain limits that are restricted by camera equipment and materials. I feel incredibly honored that my work and livelihood is being awarded and taken seriously.” His first solo exhibition was last year at New Image Gallery in Los Angeles, where he is based.

The Robert Giard Foundation was founded in 2002 immediately after the death of the eponymous photographer, whose legacy includes his hundreds of portraits of LGBTQ American authors. Its signature fellowship, reconceived last year with Queer|Art to comprise an additional $2,500 in prize money, was introduced in 2008 in partnership with the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Previous awardees include Sonali Gulati, Molly Landreth, Carmen Oquendo-Villar, and Ka-Man Tse, among others. In addition to Flanagan’s and King’s prizes this year, five artists were recognized as finalists: Phyllis Christopher, J Houston, Jessica Martinez, Nelson Morales, and Bryson Rand.