The Story

THE MISSION

“War is only half the story.” Six words that sum up the mission of The Aftermath Project. We are a grant-making, educational non-profit that supports photographers committed to telling the other half of the story of conflict. We believe that the stories of what it takes for individuals to learn to live again — to rebuild lives and homes, to restore civil societies, to address the lingering wounds of war while struggling to create new avenues for peace — is as important as the story of conflict itself, if not more so. We hold a yearly grant competition open to working photographers worldwide covering the aftermaths of conflict. We also work with universities, photographic institutions and non-profit organizations to help broaden the public’s understanding of the true cost of war — and the real price of peace.

THE GRANTS

Since 2007, The Aftermath Project has given more than $750,000 in grants to photographers. The majority of our grant-giving has been through our traditional post-conflict grant, which currently opens for applications each January, with the grant year beginning in April. In every grant cycle, we also name four finalists as part of our commitment to building far-reaching conversations about aftermath.

In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, the Board of The Aftermath Project voted to create and fund a special five-year grant cycle (2021 – 2025) called “The 1492/1619 American Aftermaths Grant” to support photographers working on the aftermaths of colonialism and enslavement in the United States and its border regions. In addition to the $25,000 grant given each year, each finalist was given an honorarium of $5,000 to continue their work, with the support of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.

The History

The Aftermath Project is an outcome of Sara Terry’s five-year-long project, Aftermath: Bosnia’s Long Road to Peace, about the aftermath of the 1992–95 war in Bosnia and Hercegovina. She completed her work in 2005, convinced that a broader public understanding and discussion of aftermath issues was crucial in a world where the media regularly covers war, but rarely covers the stories that follow the aftermath of violence and destruction. Sara founded The Aftermath Project as a way to help photographers tell these crucial stories. The Aftermath Project gave its first two grants, funded with money raised from the sale of prints generously donated by some 200 documentary and fine art photographers from around the world.

The first ten years of The Aftermath Project’s archives are part of the photography collection at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Our tenth anniversary book was published by Dewi Lewis Publishing and is available here.

Our Commitment to Diversity

The Aftermath Project is proudly committed to supporting a diverse range of photographers. We actively seek to create an inclusive grantmaking environment that welcomes those from traditionally under-represented communities and those who have not always had access to funding opportunities in the photography world.

Education

As part of our outreach and commitment to education, we have created several lesson plans with Facing History and Ourselves and with Blueshift Education, based on the work of our grant winners. The lesson plans are available for free here and also on a website we created specifically to showcase our lesson plans and to make them more easily available. Using grant winners’ photographs, the plans are designed to increase visual literacy and sharpen critical thinking skills,  as well as to provide a greater understanding of post-conflict societies and the efforts needed to rebuild them.

Our Founder

Sara Terry, 1955-2025

Sara was a documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work focuses on how we define our humanity, and the role of community in creating that definition. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in Photography, a Sundance Documentary Fellow and a contributing photographer to VII Foundation. In 2024, she was named to Forbes Women’s 50 Over 50 list. A former reporter for The Christian Science Monitor and freelance magazine writer, Sara picked up a still camera in the late 1990s at a time when she lost her faith in words and never looked back.

Who We Are

Sue Lee,
Board Member

Sue retired as Executive Director of the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA), the oldest organization in the country dedicated to the interpretation, promotion, and preservation of the social, cultural and political history and contributions of the Chinese in America in June 2017. During her tenure at CHSA, the museum thrived and expanded its audience with enhanced museum and traveling exhibits, public and educational programs, collections, and publications. A third generation San Franciscan (her paternal grandfather arrived in 1915), Sue has worked in both the nonprofit and government sectors.

John Edwin Mason,
Board Member

John is a writer, curator, and photographer who teaches African history and the history of photography at the University of Virginia. He has published extensively on South African social and cultural history and on South African and American photography. He recently curated "Visions of Progress: Portraits of Dignity, Style, and Racial Uplift," an exhibition featuring photographs of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Black southerners. He is currently at work on a book about the African American photographer, filmmaker, memoirist, and poet Gordon Parks. He is also a French hornist, performing regularly with bands and orchestras in central Virgina.

Thomas M. Neff,
Board Member

Joan Morgenstern,
Board Member

Joan is a philanthropist and photography collector in Houston, Texas, and the longest-serving member of The Aftermath Project’s board. In 1988, she became the founding president of Photo Forum, the support group for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Photography Collection. From 1991 to 1993 she served as the President of the Board of Houston Center for Photography. She became a Trustee of MFAH in 2011.

Pattie Sanford Roberts,
Board Member

Patti is a New York-based photographer and Tony Award-winning Broadway producer. A graduate of the International Center of Photography (ICP), Patti took her first photograph in 1965 using her parents’ Brownie camera. This photo remains the most meaningful and important capture in Patti’s life and it was in this moment that she experienced the monumental and everlasting power of photography.

Amy Yenkin, 
Board Member

Amy is an independent producer and editor with 25+ years of experience in social issue documentary photography, arts and social change, philanthropy, non profit management, and strategic planning. She is currently producing a documentary film on Syrian war crimes and is also the co-director and producer of We, Women, a large social impact photo-based art project by women and gender nonconforming artists in the United States. She co-produced and edited Witnesses To War: The Children of Syria by Bassam Khabieh (Spring 2021). Amy is the former director of the Open Society Foundations’ Documentary Photography Project, a program she founded and launched in 2004. During her tenure at OSF, she exhibited and funded more than 300 photographers documenting human rights and social issues globally.

Andrew Cullen,
Interim Executive Director

Andrew is a documentary photographer whose work focuses on the relationships between people and the environment. He was a Ted Scripps Fellow for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and received the National Press Photographers Foundation's Michel du Cille Fellowship for his ongoing work on border enforcement and migrant deaths. After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bangladesh and Mongolia, Andrew worked for newspapers in Maine and for the nonprofit environmental magazine High Country News before launching his freelance career, first based in North Dakota and later in Los Angeles. He has worked with The Aftermath Project since 2017, initially providing admin support to TAP's grant programs.