Darcy Padilla

Darcy Padilla

#Photographe
About
Early in my career after 12 internships at daily newspapers
--including The New York Times & The Washington Post--
I decided to freelance and pursue my own documentary projects.

For one of my first longterm stories, I spent a year
visiting an isolation ward at a maximum-security prison in
Vacaville, California, photographing inmates with AIDS.
That project received the first Alexia Grant For World
Peace & Understanding, bolstering my commitment to my
life’s work.

AIDS and its consequences became part of them when I spent
three years photographing residents of transient hotels in
one of the poorest neighborhoods in San Francisco. I saw
all the consequences of poverty - loneliness, broken
families, drugs, and the devastation of HIV. This project
received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.

While I juggle several passions at once, my enduring study
has been the life of one woman I met in the Tenderloin 17
years ago. This project is one that has set a direction
for my approach to photography.

Awards
- W. Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography
- Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fellowship
- Open Society Institute, Individual Fellowship
- Alexia Foundation for World Peace, Professional Grant
- Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography
- World Press Photo Award