Monthly Archives: March 2020

TransUnion unveils research assessing pandemics consumer finances impact; launches new consumer educational hub to help

CHICAGO, March 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Six in 10 Americans (59%) said their household income has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic an increase of 53% from those who reported impact the previous week. An additional 10% of U.S. adults said they expect their household income will suffer in the future. The newly released research from TransUnion (TRU) found that consumers from the youngest generations, as well as those persons least informed about their credit, perceive the greatest financial hardship.

TransUnion has initiated a survey of adults in the U.S. and abroad to better understand the financial impact of COVID-19 on consumers. This weeks U.S. survey of more than 3,100 adults marked the second in the ongoing research. Additional details as well as resources for consumers looking to minimize the potential negative impact of the pandemic on their credit, and access to self-serve, educational materials can be found on TransUnions COVID-19 website.

Whether its their health, financial well-being or changes in day-to-day living, the lives of tens of millions of people in the U.S. and abroad have been dramatically changed, said Amy Thomann, head of consumer credit education for TransUnion. The aim of our weekly consumer research is to better understand the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and better inform consumers, businesses and government decisions during these unprecedented times.

TransUnions research found that the youngest generations, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, were most impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic. While 59% of Americans said their household income was negatively affected by the virus, the percentages were more pronounced for Millennials (68%) and Gen Z (63%).

Furthermore, the research found that Millennials (79%) and Gen Z (74%) were among the most concerned about their ability to pay bills and loans in the next month. This compared to 70% for all respondents and 53% for Baby Boomers.

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The concern is growing; survey responders indicated an inability in the near future to pay bills and loans averaging $1,031 a 14% increase from last weeks average of $903. Much of the payment problems are likely due to the fact that 36% of respondents said their work hours have been reduced. Comparatively, last week 45% of respondents said their work hours were reduced. However, this improvement is marred by the fact that this week 16% of respondents said they lost their job compared to 9% last week.

The survey also impressed upon the need for further consumer education in relation to financial options. Of those survey respondents struggling to pay bills, nearly one quarter of the population dont know what they could do to address the situation. This level of uncertainty increased to 41% among consumers that do not know their credit scores. Of those consumers who do not know their credit scores, 80% have not contacted their lenders to discuss options, versus 63% for the overall population.

Consumers are facing many unexpected challenges and its natural that people are concerned about their finances. It is clear that those with the least knowledge about their financial situation or means to act have been the hardest hit. We encourage consumers looking to minimize potential negative impacts of the pandemic on their credit to visit TransUnions COVID-19 website, concluded Thomann.

TransUnions research and credit education tools will be updated in real-time on its COVID-19 website as the company continues to support consumers and businesses from around the globe.

About TransUnion (TRU)

TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing a comprehensive picture of each person so they can be reliably and safely represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

http://www.transunion.com/business

Contact Dave Blumberg TransUnion

E-mail david.blumberg@transunion.com

Telephone 312-972-6646

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Nearly 60% of Americans Say Household Income Negatively Impacted by COVID-19 - Yahoo Finance

Writing, editing, advising and encouraging students are all tasks members of the women empowerment blogs ShoutOut! and Her Campus do on a daily basis. Both are available to JMU students to join, and both focus on issues such as sexism, pay disparity and sexual liberation.

Olivia McCoy, the campus correspondent for Her Campus at JMU, said she got involved with the blog during Student Organization Night her freshman year and has been actively participating since. Her Campus stuck out to McCoy because she recognized the name from online articles shed read.

Professor Sarah Taylor teaches the ShoutOut! class at JMU. It's an advocacy blogging class that's been at the university for almost a decade.

As campus correspondent, McCoys essentially the editor-in-chief and president of the JMU chapter. Shes in charge of directing writers to meet deadlines, managing the executive board, scheduling meetings and recruiting new members. Her Campus is an online magazine written by college women for college women.

Im all about female empowerment, lifting other women up so they can be the best versions of themselves, McCoy said. Through Her Campus, Im able to assist other college women with their writing, editing and marketing skills, and all while creating a network of valuable connections.

Her Campus works to be relatable in its content. It covers a wide range of topics from social media tips to keys of a healthy relationship. McCoy said members try to write from the perspective of the students that read the articles.

Similar to Her Campus, all of ShoutOut!s articles are written by and for college students as well. ShoutOut! is an advocacy blogging class SCOM 301 or WGSS 301 thats been at JMU for almost 10 years. Students of any major can join. Writers can blog about their own experiences, as well as issues they feel strongly about, such as racism, sexual assault and gender identity.

Sarah Taylor who teaches the ShoutOut! class, said one of the class main goals is to disprove any falsely preconceived opinions about feminism.

Feminism is not a singular definition thing, Taylor said. I think one of the challenges for us at JMU and on our campus is to change peoples existing perspectives about feminism because, even though we are a liberal arts university, we have a lot of perspectives that are very old school when it comes to what feminism is.

Online editor and teaching assistant Cayla DiGiovanni said ShoutOut! has a mission to provide the JMU community with accurate and constructive information concerning events, legislation, cultural criticism and resources for womens rights and personal health on and off campus.

It also aims to foster a safe space in the JMU community for interactive, informed and constructive dialogue, in hopes of collectively advancing the cause of women and other marginalized groups by means of these conversations. DiGiovanni said that the goal of this blog isnt to convert readers to feminism but instead to raise consciousness of the diverse perspectives toward understanding everyday inequities.

Taylor, McCoy and DiGiovanni said that these blogs at JMU aim to help women grow, to push them to become the best versions of themselves and to give them a voice in a world that frequently tries to silence them.

Women empowerment plays a huge role in my life, DiGiovanni said. I am a firm believer in badass women empowering other badass women. I grew up in a family with badass women, and I hope to continue the trend in my family. In my opinion, every woman should strive to empower other women if they can.

Contact Morgan Vuknic at vuknicma@dukes.jmu.edu. For more on the culture, arts, and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on Twitter @Breeze_Culture.

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The empowered women behind JMU's feminist blogs | Culture - The Breeze

"Fat girls don't flip fast," the gymnastics coach I had throughout elementary and early middle school told us as she explained how to get enough height in our tumbling passes. It's called "setting" before you connect a back handspring, front handspring, whip back, etc. into a flip, you have to reach your arms up by your ears so the flip goes high up in the air. If your arms are far apart, or as my coach warned, "fat," you won't get as much height. I never quite seemed to think about "fat girls" or my body the same after that.

I'll always remember the slight, sometimes overt, comments my coach, a former gymnast herself, made about our bodies at a time when puberty was top of mind. We were learning about it in the classroom, and some of us were already facing its wrath. At one practice, she jokingly (but not so jokingly) compared the size of all of our calf and glute muscles. Then, she told a few of the girls that if they weren't careful, they'd grow up to have big butts.

There were other instances where my coach specifically targeted one girl on our team whom she constantly pointed out as too "jiggly." She'd pinch the girl's stomach and make snide remarks about needing to speak with the girl's mother to find out what food was available at home. My coach would scold the girl for her "thick" thighs and demand she run extra rounds of stairs at the end of practice. The most distressing part? She'd always say these things through a smile, sometimes mitigating the severity of her words with a laugh.

Body-shaming by coaches and other authority figures and the resulting unhealthy relationship with body image is a common theme when you talk to gymnasts on the elite level, too. Five-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles, UCLA superstar Katelyn Ohashi, and former elite gymnast Mattie Larson have all spoken about body-shaming they endured in the sport. Biles mentions in her book, Courage to Soar, that she remembers falling during her floor routine at the 2013 US Secret Classic and overhearing another coach say, "You know why she crashed? Because she's too fat." Ohashi was shamed for her curves prior to her collegiate career and was called a "bird that couldn't fly." And Larson, who developed an eating disorder in her teens, explained to Vice News in a 2018 documentary that at the now-closed-down Karolyi Ranch in Texas, former national team coordinator Martha Karolyi would go around during training-camp meals and praise gymnasts for having small amounts of food on their plates.

The things you're told as a young gymnast, good or bad, stay with you. (One study published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology in 2006 concluded, based on surveys, that retired gymnasts "reported more eating disorders and negative views of their experiences than did the current gymnasts.") Even after switching gyms a number of times and no longer working with my original coach, I still felt her comments stick.

After over a decade in the sport, my life without gymnastics began freshman year of college. When I was a senior, I wrote a personal essay recalling how, when I first went away to school, I used to stare down warily at my hips and cup them in my hands as if to hold them in when they started to blossom. I also became near-obsessed with working out. I'd go to the campus gym for two hours per night, six days a week. Why? Well, the thought of losing the abs you could see through my leotard this "perfect" gymnast's body was terrifying. My roommate even shared her concerns when I'd come back to the dorms at 11 p.m. fresh off a long sweat session.

Though I never developed an eating disorder while competing in gymnastics or thereafter, I did show signs of disordered eating. There was a period of time when I punished myself for indulging in sweets by doing extra crunches on my bedroom floor. I was hyperaware of what my body looked like. These were all things I had to work through once I quit gymnastics. It took a few years, but I learned that rest days are important and so is enjoying the food you eat, exercise is not a punishment, and my body can still be beautiful and athletic without meeting standards set by a sport fixated on attaining perfection.

I heard similar sentiments when I spoke with Betsy McNally, a former gymnastics coach who also competed in the sport for over a decade through level 10 (level 10, for reference, is right below the elite level). Now she's a personal trainer and nutritionist who teaches gymnastics boot camps, called Betsy Bootcamps, across the country to instruct families, coaches, and gymnasts about the importance of proper nutrition for athletes and how to foster positive body image and a safe environment. She doesn't want things to escalate for them like it did for her.

At 14, McNally was told that she was "too heavy" to be good at gymnastics and that her weight was holding her back. She describes in her memoir, Binges & Balance Beams, that her coaches started displaying her and her teammates' weights on a chart at practice. She fell into a downward spiral of "not eating" and sprinkling fiber powders on her meals, so she'd stay fuller for longer. No one ever taught her which foods would give her energy and what would help her recover from workouts, she said. No one was there to talk about how to eat to promote a healthy lifestyle; instead, it was all about restriction. And the worst part, as it is for many gymnasts, were the lingering effects.

After gymnastics, McNally turned to bodybuilding competitions and modeling, becoming "obsessed" with her physique and looking fit. She struggled with the "vicious cycle" of restriction and binging in the bodybuilding world, and those comments from her gymnastics coach remained. Though McNally can't diagnose eating disorders or refer athletes at her boot camps to eating-disorder specialists that's out of her scope of practice she can educate them on the importance of nutrition that she's learned not only through her professional work but through her own experiences, too.

It's in the nature of gymnastics (and in the rules, for that matter) to strive for perfection, but I realize now that, as much as I love and appreciate those years as a gymnast, this fight for the elusive "perfect" led me to grip onto what I deemed to be my own imperfections. I can't sit here and pretend that the sport didn't shape me as a person in positive ways. I owe a lot to it my courage, my attention to detail, my splits but the body-shaming is not just exclusive to the elite level of gymnastics; it's on all levels, and it has longterm effects.

And it's not just in gymnastics. Take former professional runner Mary Cain's November 2019 op-ed video published on the New York Times website. In it, she details the ruthless and unhealthy atmosphere on the now-shut-down Nike Oregon Project team cultivated by her coaches and spearheaded by Alberto Salazar (note: Salazar was banned from the sport for four years due to a doping scandal). Cain was conditioned to shed pounds at a dangerous rate because it would make her "faster," and she, too, was weighed in front of her peers.

Cain is an advocate for more women coaches, and I agree that we need them. But my experience shows that women are not immune to falling prey to, and perpetuating, these negative cultural messages. We all need to work together to change the fundamental ways in which we educate and support young women in sports.

As McNally told me, "I really like to think that I'm part of a movement where we're changing, shifting completely, the whole result of the sport and focusing more on being positive and educating girls." But the real people struggling, she noted, are "people like me and you." We, as McNally explained, experience the residual effects later in life where it "manifests in eating disorders and people not loving themselves just because of a stupid comment."

McNally and I spent some time talking about how the focus on appearance and weight and lack of education on healthy habits and nutrition caused us to have missed opportunities in our gymnastics careers. "I really would have been good at the sport, but nobody ever taught me balance," she said. Still, she was able to use the struggles she faced for a purpose greater than her own. "I took a bad thing and I made it a good thing," she said, "and that's what makes us stronger and better people."

Hearing McNally say this made me feel seen. Self-love can be hard to come by. Gymnastics did teach me to be proud of my strength and to believe in that strength. My former coach's body-shaming can't take away that feeling of empowerment, but it wasn't until after those transitional years in college that I could abandon the microscopic lens I used to view my body through; that I could detach from this idea of what a "perfect" body should be.

For gymnasts or former gymnasts going through similar experiences, I have a message: It's OK to love the sport and, at the same time, acknowledge that there are deep-seated issues in how girls' bodies are judged. It's OK to thank the sport for what it's given you and recognize what it took from you. It's OK to grow into the person you now are and will become knowing that perfect isn't who you are. And that's exactly how it's supposed to be.

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My Gymnastics Coach Used to Fat-Shame Girls, and It Shaped the Way I View My Body - POPSUGAR

One of the problems that the coronavirus pandemic is exposing in the U.S. is a decades-long erosion of trust in civil society. The effect is like a loss of the civic antibodies that keep self-governance healthy. In the political vacuum, the work of containing the outbreak falls nearly 100 percent on elected leaders and corporations with minimal popular credibility. As journalist David M. Shribman notes, [T]he cost to capitalism shrinks in comparison to the cost in social capital.

Elections alone are not producing just outcomes that address citizens needs, as witnessed, for example, by more than a year of weekly street protests by anti-austerity activists in France against their elected government, or neoliberal economic policies implemented by an elected president in Chile.

U.S. elections have devolved into $10 billion spectacles funded by banks, corporations and a small cadre of wealthy donors representing less than 1 percent of the adult population. They account for nearly 70 percent of all campaign funding. Eitan Hersh of Tufts University describes the resultant mutation of citizenship as political hobbyism, in which everyone is a spectator, an armchair quarterback, a partisan fan picking a favorite candidate-product.

Get the latest news and thought-provoking analysis from Truthout.

As long as U.S. politics are dominated by a top-down consumerist version of representative democracy in lieu of citizen-driven civil society, the nation will stay focused on maintaining a permanent $1.25 trillion warfare state built on extreme social and economic inequality, and political dysfunction will continue to deepen.

The irony of this devolution of democracy is that there has never been a time of greater opportunity for creative problem solving and citizen empowerment.

Since 2016, I have been traveling in Europe and the Americas studying citizen-driven innovation. While my findings are not scientific in any formal sense, this field investigation and bricolage on a global scale have consistently revealed potentially transformative models of citizen self-organization and small-bore government activism that embody a more hopeful politics of direct democracy.

In Spain, for example, a project called Vivero de Iniciativas Ciudadanas (VIC), or Nursery of Citizens Initiatives, was launched 16 years ago to honor the civic lives of victims of the terrorist bombing of Atocha Train Station. With help from Spains innovative Medialab Prado, VIC has produced a creative commons project called CIVICS that interactively maps citizens initiatives in the non-monetary social economy.

The initiatives being mapped whether focused on helping elderly shut-ins, advocating for alternative transportation or increased public art come and go as the economy rises and falls, but their numbers increase over time. They are too small and informal to show up as nongovernmental organizations, yet their aggregate impact is considerable.

For the first time, CIVICS open-source mapping gives engaged citizens visibility of initiatives similar to their own and the ability to connect, add information and broaden their collective impact.

Through a partnership of regional and local initiatives in Madrid called Los Madriles, both printed and interactive versions of CIVICS-style maps showing neighborhood initiatives are available throughout the city, including educational childrens maps.

As the website states, the overarching goal of this collaborative effort is to value the power of a critical and active citizenship, and to create new spaces of possibility through self-management and participation.

The Madriles project is also changing tourism by empowering visitors from other countries to connect with like-minded neighborhood activists in Spain.

In Chile, in spite of their recent political turmoil, an initiative called Quiero mi Barrio (QMB), or I Love My Neighborhood, started in 2006 under former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and has spread through communities across the Andes with a low-cost, high-impact focus on simply empowering people to express their love for their neighborhoods.

Even in the poorest barrios, civic pride of place exists. QMB encourages this pride and increases citizen engagement through personal attention, training, public visibility, facilitating partnerships, and self-organization to raise community morale and increase activism.

These kinds of projects exist everywhere that I have traveled since 2016. They range from farmers seed exchanges aimed at preserving genetic diversity of seed stocks and building local community in Mexico, Central and South America, to open-source architectural cooperatives practicing urban acupuncture, and computer hacker networks promoting political accountability and civic innovation.

With the ability of citizens to connect anywhere in the world, such initiatives offer alternative civic models that can be duplicated, modified and scaled across borders. There has never been a better time for citizens to shift their focus away from political spectacle to building a new kind of democratic self-governance predicated on direct citizen engagement and collaboration.

As the failure of representative democracy has become too clear to ignore, alternative models for organizing a modern democratic society built around diverse citizens initiatives have also emerged.

Yale Professor Hlne Landemores pioneering work on empowering the rule of the many in lieu of rule by a self-interested professional class of elected representatives is one of the more promising frameworks for enabling citizen-driven change.

Landemore starts with what political theorists call the fact of disagreement, then seeks to clarify its meaning and propose novel ways of dealing with it.

Rather than ignoring or downplaying the reality that people in free societies are committed to different and conflicting beliefs, values, conceptions of social justice, Landemores nascent solutions hinge on the idea of obligatory citizenship similar to a draft or lottery. When everyone serves, it is not possible to outsource either responsibility or blame.

Although there are no quick solutions, there is ample raw material to begin constructing viable forms of alternative citizen-centered democratic politics and governance. All that is needed is the courage to start.

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Undemocratic Elections Have Citizens Reinventing Self-Governance Worldwide - Truthout

Meet the changemakers.

This Air Max season, Nike Sportswear champions inclusivity in the ever-evolving sneaker culture. Nike has tapped singer-songwriter KLPfor an interview series amplifying the voices of female changemakers who are shaping the future of sneaker culture. The following interview and words are written by KLP.

Sometimes you meet someone who shines such a bright light of positivity, it genuinely inspires you. That was me the moment I met Nawal Sari. She has such a passion for spreading self-empowerment, creativity and cultural awareness. And she does so with such grace, through sharing her own honest experiences with her followers. Having the opportunity to sit down with her and chat so openly about her upbringing, her inspirations and motivations was a moment that Ill carry through life with me.

KLP: Its so nice to meet you, Nawal. How do you describe yourself and what you stand for when you first meet people?

Nawal Sari: It feels like, for me, Im just doing my own thing in my own little bubble. But to put it into words, Im redefining modest fashion by using my platform to show other women Muslim women and every girl that modest fashion is there, and its personal and creative.

Im working on my platforms to basically push that message and inspire other girls, because I never had that growing up as this young Aussie girl. I didnt have a Muslim girl on social media, or in the media, that I could look to and be like, I want to be like her or theres a space for me. Im just on my own little mission to work to change things in my own way.

KLP: I wasnt aware of what modest fashion was. I didnt even know that it was a term to describe a type of fashion. How do you describe modest fashion?

NS: First of all, its very personal. To me, modest fashion is wearing the hijab, having longer pieces that are not as tight. To some other girls its wearing more of a turban-style hijab and doing their own type of thing. So its very, very personal. What Im trying to do is show that modest fashion is present. Its there, its in the world, people need to recognise it and take it for what it is; but its also very empowering for women.

KLP: Its your choice to dress like that and I guess youre trying to say that its up to you and the individual how they want to dress.

NS: Yeah, just as any woman should have the option to dress how she wants, the same applies. I choose to cover, you may choose to do something else. Its totally up to you, its personal, and women should have the right to dress how they want to dress and not feel like they have to conform to something because it makes someone else uncomfortable.

KLP: When you were growing up, did you have anyone that you could see that was visible that you could look up to, be it in fashion or TV?

NS: I wore the hijab when I was 15 or 16, it was in year 10. And at the time, I wasnt looking up to hijabi women. It wasnt until I got onto social media and I saw in the UK and the US that they have hijabi bloggers. I didnt think that was a thing, because I just saw the typical Aussie look for so long. And that appeals to some women, but to a lot of us it doesnt. So I kind of thought there wasnt a space for me in fashion, being a Muslim woman who also wears the hijab.

KLP: This Air Max season, Nike is championing inclusivity in sneaker culture through the likes of Air Max Verona, the new silhouette created by women, for women. Youve spoken about that at length, and youre an inspiration for so many people, how does it feel being a muse in fashion to your followers?

NS: Its crazy. I feel like I just fell into it, I never strived to be like, Im going to inspire women. I would get feedback from women who were like, because of you, I decided to wear the hijab or because of you, I dress more creatively or more personally. Thats amazing, thats what Im here to do.

Before anything I would tell myself, if Im going to put myself on a platform where I have a voice and I have that power, its going to be for something. Im not just going to be there to benefit myself, its going to help other people.

Im still studying, Im still doing my own thing, but I do see it as a career now.

KLP: You have such a strong message and its so genuine. And I guess through social media, you can connect with people all over the world which is amazing. Has there ever been an experience where someone has hit you up directly and said your sense of style has changed the way they think about modest fashion?

NS: Ive had a lot more recently, when Ive been exposed to more mainstream media, where Ive had non-Muslim women come to me and say, because of you, Ive changed my perspective of it all. Im way more open to [modest dressing] now, I see that its empowering.

My mission is to help my own first, of course I want Muslim women to feel the power. But to think that any woman can be more inclusive towards my community, and that when they see a Muslim woman walk down the road, that woman wont be alienated or treated differently because I helped a person unpack [their perceptions], its just another amazing thing that could happen from the whole thing.

KLP: So, do you believe that youve created a catalyst for change among your followers?

NS: I feel like Ive created a space where, if you follow me and you decide to be a part of the community then for sure, its changing things. To think that a Muslim woman can feel like the hijab isnt going to change her whole life and be a thing of I have to chuck out all my fun clothes and do all these things because I think a lot of Muslim women, we thought that. Like, We have to change who we are to be a woman who wears the hijab.

I feel like Im trying to show girls that its a big step, its powerful, its personal. But it can also be creative and fun, and you dont have to totally flip things upside down so you can wear the hijab.

But sneaker culture for me was how I developed my own personal style, because streetwear and sneakers, its a lot more modest than other style spaces. When I finished high school, I was actually working at a sneaker store when I discovered street culture. Its modest and its also really sick, so I can do both and still respect what Im doing. So thats kind of how I developed into my own personal style.

And I think for a lot of Muslim women, street culture and sneakers and everything around sportswear is kind of its like their safe space. Because no ones going to judge you if you walk around in a modest outfit, but its a full-on Nike kit, because its sick. But youre also comfortable and youre wearing whatever you want. So its also how Ive pushed into my own style.

KLP: Okay so last question, why is sportswear and sneaker culture important to you?

NS: Its how I developed my own style. Its how I connected my personality plus modest fashion into what I wear. When I was in high school, I remember feeling like I had to dress a certain way, which is how other hijabis dressed. Which is fine for some, but for me I didnt feel like it was personal enough. So being able to step into the sportswear world, it was not totally foreign because youre wearing longer pieces, looser pieces. I think for a lot of women, thats been really empowering. And now we have the Nike Hijab which has totally changed the game.

KLP: How did you feel when you saw that?NS: I was so happy! I wear it as more of a fashion piece, like I wear it with a hoodie on top or with just like a really cute outfit. And you can do that, theres versatility to it.

Shop the Air Max Verona here and read others in our Shaping Culture series here.

nike.com/au

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Shaping Culture: Nawal Sari on the intersection of modest fashion and sneakers - Fashion Journal

The World Photography Organisation has announced KyeongJun Yang of South Korea as the winner of the fifth annual ZEISS Photography Award. Responding to the brief Seeing Beyond: Discoveries, Yang won for his series Metamorphosis, exploring the immigrant experience. Also announced are the nine shortlisted photographers.

For this years brief, photographers were asked to submit a series of works focused on the theme of discoveries that transform our everyday lives. These could range from personal revelations to scientific and technological breakthroughs or ideas that led to social change. In Metamorphosis, Yang presents a series of black-and-white images comprising portraits and still life each depicting or representative of Julie Chen, a young woman who emigrated to the USA from Mainland China at the age of twelve following her parents separation. Each photograph is paired with Chens writings and quoted dialogue related to her experiences as an immigrant, feelings of loneliness and conflicted sense of identity.

For Yang, currently an international senior journalist student at the University of Texas at Austin, Chens experiences strongly link to his feelings of isolation and strangeness while also echoing those of many others.

As the 2020 winner, Yang receives 12,000 worth of ZEISS lenses of his choice and 3,000 to cover costs for a photography project.

Commenting about his win KyeongJun Yang said: Winning this award still feels like a dream. I am glad not only because Ive won, but also because now I know Im not the only person who likes my images. Im happy my photographs have been enjoyed by others, somehow they dont seem as lonely anymore.

See also: Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2019 Winners Announced

Talking about this years submissions and the winning work, judge Max Ferguson, Photo Editor, said: The use of subtle, personal images of the subject (Julie Chen) lets us get a glimpse into the life of a young Chinese American woman. The closeness and the quietness of the images is what allows us to see and think more about what is going on here. For me, this work stood out from the other submissions we judged as it was clear that although, these were documentary photographs, there was a conceptual underpinning to them which opened up more questions than answers and made for a more engaging reading of the work.

Other shortlisted projects include: The Flying Cholitas by Luisa Drr (Brazil) looks at the Fighting Cholitas, a performing wrestling group of indigenous women dressed in traditional Bolivian dress. Once considered to be among the countrys most marginalised communities today, following civil rights campaigns in the 1960s, they have become to many a symbol of female empowerment. Wahala by Robin Hinsch (Germany) (seen at top of page) draws attention to the ecological crisis and devastating effects of continued oil spillage and natural gas flaring along the Niger delta river. Inspired by the great explorers and expeditions of the past, Parallel Universe by Jorritt T. Hoen (Netherlands) features images of exotic habitats from faraway corners of the world set up inside peoples living rooms. Between Two Shores by Tadas Kazakevicius (Lithuania) presents landscapes and portraits of local residents in the Curonian Spit, a sand dune separating the Curonian lagoon and the Baltic Sea, rich in history and local mythology.

Also examining the human and natural toll of heavy pollution, Tajo by Stefano Sbrulli (Italy) features images of the tainted environment and disenfranchised communities that live near the El Tojo crater, an abundant source of elements and metals in Peru. 100 by Magdalena Stengel (Germany) examines our ever increasing lifespans in a series of humouous portraits depicting men and women between the ages of 90 and 100. Sakhawood by Alexey Vasilyev (Russian Federation) documents the popular film industry in the remote Yakutia region in Russia. Seven to ten feature films are produced in the region each year ranging from romantic comedies to fairy tales, based on local legends and beliefs. Although amateur in nature, these films have gained increasing acclaim at international festivals with some even challenging Hollywood blockbusters in local cinemas box offices.

In Like a Father, Like a Mountain, Pan Wang (China Mainland) returns to the great Qinling mountain range to recapture childhood scenes and memories shared with his late father. Hidden Motherhood by Alena Zhandarova (Russian Federation) presents a contemporary take on hidden-mothers photography, a common practice in the Victorian era in which young children posing for the camera were held still by mothers covered from view. In recreating the practice in her photographs, Zhandarova comments on the social standing of mothers who often feel invisible or secondary to their children.

This years winning and shortlisted works were judged by Louise Fedotov-Clements, Director, FORMAT International Photography Festival & Artistic Director, QUAD; Max Ferguson, Freelance Photo Editor; and Simon Lovermann, Founder & Artistic Director, De Greif.

The Sony World Photography Awards 2020 exhibition which was set to feature images by the winner and shortlist has been cancelled due to the current coronavirus situation. The World Photography Organisation and ZEISS recognise the impact this has on the ZEISS Photography Award 2020 photographers and are working on a series of online initiatives to support and celebrate their works.

The World Photography Organisation is a global platform for photography initiatives including the Sony World Photography Awards, one of the worlds leading photography competitions, and PHOTOFAIRS, leading international art fairs dedicated to photography.

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Winners of Fifth Annual Zeiss Photography Awards Announced - Arts and Collections International