Ren Yue of China, was announced as the recipient of the 2008 Howard Chapnick Grant for the advancement of photojournalism in a ceremony held at The New School's Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street, on October 22nd.

Ren Yue is a professor of photojournalism at Renmin University in Beijing and she is also a photographer. She spearheads her latest project with the contribution of participants chosen among young freelance photographers and students who responded to online ads. Seven selected photographers work separately documenting the changing lives and urban landscapes brought on by the 2008 summer Olympic Games in the Chinese capital. Started last May, the project will be completed by the end of the year and will result both in an exhibition and a multi-media presentation.

The judges for this year’s Grant, all trustees of the W. Eugene Smith Fund, were Donna Ferrato, photographer and author of “Living with the Enemy;" Robert Pledge, president of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, and also of Contact Press Images; Marcel Saba, president of Redux Pictures; Aaron Schindler, managing director of Wealth Advisory Group LLC, and Yukiko Launois, photo-editor and coordinator of the Howard Chapnick Grant.

The Chapnick Grant program, initiated fifteen years ago by Bryan Lanker and Rich Clarkson, honors Howard Chapnick, the late former president of Black Star Photo Agency, who dedicated his life to photojournalism and to photojournalists as photo-editor, mentor.