Filipino photojournalist bags scholarship

Vicente Jaime “VJ” Villafranca, a 26-year-old former photojournalism student at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University, was recently named the 2008 Ian Parry Scholarship awardee.

Villafranca bested works from other countries with his photo documentary of 12 black-and-white images of gang members in Manila’s Baseco compound.

Villafranca, who currently works as a freelance photographer, was a former stringer for the Agence France Press and Associated Press before working full-time for Reuters. He was also a stringer for World Picture News in New York. He has shot commercial photography for local and international magazines.

The Ian Parry Scholarship was created by friends and family of photojournalist Ian Parry, who died at the age of 24 during the Romanian revolution in 1989 while on an assignment for The Sunday Times. Its aim is “to build something positive from such a tragic death”. It is an annual international competition that recognizes the talents of young photographers who are either under 24 years old or are attending a full-time photography course.