TORONTO - Indian artist Gauri Gill has won this year's $50,000 Grange Prize, Canada's richest photography award.
The winner was announced Tuesday at a gala reception at the Art Gallery of Ontario after an eight-week public vote.
The Delhi-based Gill received an MFA at Stanford University and has exhibited her photography around the world.
Her body of work includes a decade-long study of people living in marginalized communities in Rajasthan, India.
Her photographs "often address ordinary heroism within challenging environments," said a statement on behalf of the nominating jury, "depicting the artist's often-intimate relationships with her subjects with a documentary spirit and a human concern over issues of survival."
Canadian photographers Elaine Stocki and Althea Thauberger were among the other finalists for this year's Grange Prize, which was founded by Aeroplan and the AGO.
The other finalist was Nandini Valli, also of India.
Each of the four shortlisted photographers is awarded an international residency and received $5,000 toward the creation of new work.
