More than words

🌐 Capturing essence + new global opportunities.

Jun 20, 2025

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

WorldWise readers—

When I learned that this year’s Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo had a geographic focus on Australia as its theme, I must admit to wondering how relevant I’d find it to what we cover in these pages. But any doubt was put to rest once I had a chance to get closer to the work.

Scroll down for a few highlights, check out the full line-up on the festival site here, or if you can make it to Austria for a walk through the open-air installations, there’s time—free to access and with a 350K footfall each year, the festival is open until October 12th.

Anita

INSIDER | views & experience

A view from down under.

One of the reasons I love photographic work—and bring it into this space—is the capacity to convey an essence, or a feeling, in what it captures.

It’s in the fiery reds, smoke-filled landscapes and worried faces of Matthew Abbot’s ‘Black Summer’; the rich and colourful motifs, diversity and vulnerability in Bobbi Lockyer’s work; in the rural encounters and quiet intensity of a sparsely populated land in Adam Ferguson’s ‘Big Sky’; and it’s in the vibrant energy in Ulla Lochmann’s images of lives immersed in nature, at ease with the unpredictability that comes with the nurturing.

Like in last year’s exhibition, the 2025 Baden photo festival has once again drawn some of the world’s best photographers presenting powerful work curated to focus on environmental and social issues. Some 1,500 large-format installations are dotted across Baden’s gardens, streets and squares, offering a view from Australia that speaks to universal issues and global challenges—sometimes from far-flung places most of us are unlikely to experience first-hand.

Images made to freeze a moment in time that brings us instantly closer to the core of a story. Here are four highlights.

Matthew Abbot, Black Summer | Baden Photo 2025 | © anita makri — Matthew Abbot won a World Press Photo award for his image of a kangaroo hopping past a burning house during one of the biggest disasters in Australia’s recent history. Between June 2019 and May 2020, a bushfire season dubbed the Black Summer destroyed 24.3 million hectares of land and more than 3000 buildings, killing 34 people and 3 billion terrestrial animals. The financial cost came to 88 billion Australian dollars. Alongside the inferno, Abbott’s work also tells another side of the story: how the Aborigines’ ancient burning practices are now proven to control rather than fan the flames.

Bobbi Lockyer, Birthing on Country | Baden Photo 2025 | © anita makri — Bobbi Lockyer creates colourful art that combines clothing, traditional paintings and photographs. A representative of the Ngarluma, Kariyarra, Nyul Nyul andd Yawuru peoples, she identifies as a pink-haired mermaid queen, feminist and queer. Her work shakes up traditions and advocates for social justice, including the rights of women and First Nations Australians. In the work Birthing on Country, Lockyer explores a movement that helps Aboriginal women give birth in a familiar environment that respects traditions and identity in a country that still struggles with racial divisions.

Adam Ferguson, Big Sky | Baden Photo | © anita makri — Adam Ferguson’s Big Sky explores Australia’s vast interior territory. By emulating how Richard Avedon captured the American West in the late 1970s, Ferguson aims to cast the rural expanse of his homeland in a new light and challenge pervasive narratives about the Australian Outback. In the process, his images capture a complex relationship between daily life, the climate crisis, globalisation and colonial influences.

Ulla Lochmann, New Britain: The People of the Volcanoes | Baden Photo 2025 | © anita makri — Ulla Lochmann first visited the province of East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, in 2001. Over the next 20 years, the territory would lose 10% of its tree cover, more than half of it primary forest, most of which was still intact. In New Britain: The People of the Volcanoes, Lochmann takes us through territory she now knows well: the Nakanai mountains, the volcanoes of the Bismarck archipelago, and glimpses of the traditional life of Austronesians and Papuans who inhabit a remote land facing environmental challenges that resonate globally.

OPPORTUNITIES | working with the media

grants+funding

MENA | The Al-Jumhuriya platform is inviting experienced Syrian women journalists to apply for a grant that supports work to complete in-depth stories or investigations which highlight a topic of public interest in the country, or within Syrian diaspora communities—closing 25 June.

🎥 ASIA | Internews is offering grants for cross-border teams to produce content promoting regional cooperation relevant to Central Asia—applications accepted on a rolling basis until 30 June.

GLOBAL | The Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism is inviting women and nonbinary journalists with at least three years’ experience to apply for a story grant—closing 13 July.

🎥 MENA | Culture Resource (Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy) is offering a series of grants to support the travels of artists and cultural actors from the Arab region—various deadlines: Production Awards Program, Wijhat, Stand for Art, Abbara.

ASIA & AFRICA | The non-profit SMEX is accepting applications for its Digital Rights Fund, designed to empower human rights defenders and related groups that need support to continue working in the face of digital threats across West Asia and North Africa—apply now.

fellowships+scholarships

🎥 ASIA | Journalists, photographers and freelancers in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan can apply for a fellowship at Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières—apply by 30 June.

GLOBAL | The Society of Professional Journalists Foundation is accepting applications for its Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship, a program to enable a mid-career journalist employed at a US outlet who specializes in fact-based commentary or analysis to pursue in-depth reporting projects—deadline 19 June.

GLOBAL | Climate Feed, an initiative of Green Queen Media, is accepting applications for its 12-week Climate Feed Fellowship which is dedicated to empowering young reporters to tell a better food and climate story—deadline 20 June.

GLOBAL | The Online News Association is accepting applications for the MJ Bear Fellowships from digital journalists born between mid-1995 and mid-2002—deadline 22 June.

GLOBAL | Journalists and editors from emerging, transitional, and fragile states who work in mid-level newsroom management positions can apply to the WAN-IFRA WIN Global Leadership Accelerator 2025—deadline 29 June.

🇧🇷 LAC | Deutsche Welle is inviting applications from early-career Brazilian journalists for its Visiting Journalist Program, a three-month internship in Bonn, Germany—closing 30 June.

GLOBAL | Reuters and Durham University are inviting applications for the Sir Harry Evans Global Fellowship in Investigative Journalism, which offers an exceptional early-career journalist a nine-month fellowship at Durham University with an opportunity to undertake an investigative project from inside a Reuters newsroom in London, New York, Sydney or Toronto—apply by 7 July.

training+events

GLOBAL | CNN Academy is offering its Voices from the South: Storytelling for Impact program for young storytellers from developing countries in the Global South, including Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia—deadline for the virtual and in person training courses happening in the second half of the year is 23 June.

GLOBAL | Mongabay is hosting a webinar on how to cover plastic pollution which will be broadcast on LinkedIn and on Youtube—join on 24 June at 12pm UTC.

🇵🇹 🇧🇷 LAC | The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) is inviting journalists and students to register for online or in-person attendance of its 20th International Congress of Investigative Journalism, to be held in São Paulo in July 10-13, which features panels, lectures and short courses—register now.

awards+competitions

🎥 LAC | The Vladimir Herzog Journalism Prize for Amnesty and Human Rights is accepting entries from journalists who cover human rights, social justice and democracy issues—deadline for main categories 10 June, for the special Democracy Advocacy category is 23 September.

GLOBAL | The judges of the Press Gazette’s Future of Media Awards are looking for work which brings quality journalism to digital audiences in the UK and worldwide—deadline 19 June.

🎥 GLOBAL | Young filmmakers can submit short films on migration, diversity, social inclusion and prevention of xenophobia to the PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival, a competition sponsored by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the International Organization for Migration—closing 22 June.

GLOBAL | The International News Media Association is accepting applications and nominations for the 30 Under 30 Awards, a competition that rewards outstanding achievement and career potential among young professionals in the news media industry—apply or submit your nomination by 27 June.

🎥 GLOBAL | The Association for International Broadcasting is accepting entries for its annual competition that recognises TV, video, digital, radio, audio and social media work—deadline 30 June.

🇪🇸 LAC | The Instituto Prensa y Sociedad has launched a new edition of the Latin American Investigative Journalism Award "Javier Valdez," which aims to encourage greater transparency in government, business and media, and to promote investigative reporting on matters of public interest—submit your work by 30 June.

‼️ It’s awards season—14 more opportunities are available to paid subscribers here (a gift subscription is available).

pitches+positions

MENA | The Public Source is hiring a deputy editor-in-chief based in Beirut, Lebanon—deadline 20 June.

GLOBAL | Rest of World is hiring a publisher who will be responsible for the publication’s business, brand, and sustainable growth through its next chapter—apply now.

GLOBAL | The Examination is accepting applications on a rolling basis for the positions of Interim Managing Editor, News Editor and Data Editor—apply now.

GLOBAL | Slate needs pitches for science & health features that will shift/challenge how readers see the world and how it works—send yours to Shannon Palus.

AFRICA | The Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project is accepting pitches for investigative journalism projects—pitch now.

GLOBAL | Big Think is looking for original feature pitches about transformative trends, scientific breakthroughs, and emerging ideas that challenge conventional wisdom—pitch now.

AFRICA | Minority Africa, a digital publication that uses data-driven multimedia journalism to tell stories focused on minorities in the African continent, is open to pitches—check out their guide.

GLOBAL | Current Conservation, a non-profit print and online magazine, is looking for pitches from writers and photographers interested in conservation research—pitch now.

📌 More opportunities are available to paid subscribers here (a gift subscription is available). We currently have a total of 62 opportunities listed with deadlines through to September.

resources+tools

Legal strategies for foreign journalists in the US - International Journalists' Network
Under Attack: How Journalists Can Defend Themselves Against Digital Threats - Knight Science Journalism
When health data disappears: 8 tips for finding what’s hidden from public view - The Journalist's Resource
From despair to purpose: Six climate reporters on how to protect their mental health - Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Covering the Extractive Industries – Global Investigative Journalism Network

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PLUS | in other editions

Water as weapon

May 29

Read full story

UPDATE | from the network

A brand-new edition of an Oxfam course, ‘Making Change Happen’, is now live—available in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic. Activism should be covered by the media with the same attention and weight as government or corporate news, Jennifer Oldham argues in Climate Changes Everything. The Forum on Information and Democracy is inviting contributions for a global policy brief on disinformation and attacks on information integrity related to environmental issues—learn more and contribute by 30 June. The Association for British Science Writers has announced the list of finalists for its 2025 science journalism awards—46 entries shortlisted out of 277 across 11 categories.

PS.

Thank you.

WorldWise is read across 72 countries—it remains independent thanks to the support of subscribers like you, and to the rest of my nomadic work-life. Sign up | Browse archive | Sponsor an issue

Created and edited by Anita Makri—journalist/writer, producer and editorial adviser covering global development and science in society. I also help selected organisations with compatible values to strengthen their media work. LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

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